2023 Kdrama Revenant Episode 5 Recap & 5 highlights, Review

Korean drama “Revenant” Episode 5 :San-Yeong knows the truth about mom choosing to leave father. Hai Shang intuitively believed that Baekchagol Village had a secret unknown to others. On the other hand, Seo Moon-Choo and Lee Hong-Sae learned about the fact that the suicide victims with red bruises on their wrists were related to Ku Kang-Mo.

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Kdrama Revenant Episode 5 Recap

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 “Revenant” Episode 5 Recap : Gu San-Yeong witnesses Ku Kang-Mo becoming a ghost in Baekchagol Village. This happens because Ms.Park burns the straw doll to summon her daughter, attracting all the ghosts to the village. Now Yeom Hae-Sang needs to find out how Ms.Park summoned them. Eventually, he discovers that Ms.Park used long stalks as a guide for the ghosts to return here.

Yeom Hae-Sang tries to destroy the northern stalks. On another note, although Gu San-Yeong sees his father, he disappears after saying, “This is not me, I’m sorry, I had no choice.” Gu San-Yeong then faints as well.

At the hospital, Gu San-Yeong questions her mother about why she kept so many things hidden from him – not only lying about his father’s death but also concealing that Baechagol Village was their hometown and even hiding a “due date.”

Finally, Gu San-Yeong’s mother reveals that it was the day when Gu San-Yeong’s sibling couldn’t survive. When she was with Ku Kang-Mo during those two months before their second child was due to be born, he suddenly said something like “The second one will die; they will die by my hands.”

This frightened Yoon Gyeong-Mun (Gu San-Yeong’s mother), so she went back to her parents’ home in Baekchagol village for her second pregnancy but didn’t bring along Gu San-Yeong. However, even there they couldn’t escape from Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost because one night Yin Jeong-Won dreamt of Ku Kang-Mo appearing and saying that “the second one must die.” After this dream occurred, Yoon Gyeong-Mun miscarried. Her mother claims seeing Ku Kang-Mo on that day but hasn’t seen him since Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s miscarriage.

Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s mother decides to go to Seoul first and bring back Gu San-Yeong. However, Yoon Gyeong-Mun discovers her mother fighting against an unknown force near a well. She then tells Yin Jeoung-Won to take Gu San-Yeong and never return home again before falling into the well herself. Yoon Gyeong-Mun escapes with Gu San-Yeong, leaving Ku Kang-Mo behind. Yeom Hae-Sang follows the village chief to visit Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s old house, which is now in ruins but has “grass ropes” on the ground. Both Gu San-Yeong and Yeom Hae-Sang deduce that Ku Kang-Mo was also possessed by Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost at that time. The question remains: why did Ku Kang-Mo become entangled with these demons?

On the other hand, Lee Hong-Sae discovered several new cases and found that many suicide cases were related to Ku Kang-Mo. Xu Shangxun dislikes Ku Kang-Mo, considering him a fraud and cult leader. On the other hand, Lee Cixi was once a student of Ku Kang-Mo and even had a case involving his mother-in-law’s death, Lee Ok-Ja.

Yoon Gyeong-Mun told Gu San-Yeong that Ku Kang-Mo is someone who is good at listening. In the past, they became close because Ku Kang-Mo needed to conduct field research in school. However, Yoon Gyeong-Mun thought it was because he liked her, but later realized that every folk scholar does this. Yoon Gyeong-Mun is afraid because children from Jangjin-Ri village where Ku Kang-Mo ranks second have been dying continuously.

Yeom Hae-Sang read the letter left by Ku Kang-Mo brought by Seo Moon-Choon and discovered that it wasn’t written by Ku Kang-Mo but by a Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost. So the purpose of the Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost is also to involve Yeom Hae-Sang in this matter.

At this time, Gu San-Yeong arrived and told Yeom Hae-Sang about the terrifying customs of Jangjin-Ri in the past. In fact, Lee Mok-Dan was not simply captured by a mad wizard but rather designed as a sacrifice for Juvenile Ghosts summoned when something unfortunate happened in the village to protect them and ensure bountiful harvests.

Now Yeom Hae-Sang doesn’t understand why the Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost  gave red hair to Gu San-Yeong or why they involved Yeom Hae-Sang.

At this moment, Gu San-Yeong received a message and suddenly became strange; it turns out Baek Se-mi finally passed her exam and wanted to share the joy with Gu San-Yeong, but he seemed unhappy. In addition, Kim Woo-jin, who has been by Yeom Hae-Sang’s side all along, is actually a very greedy demon blaming Yeom Hae-Sang for turning it into this state.

Gu San-Yeong left Yeom Hae-Sang’s house seemingly displeased. Later, dressed elegantly, she appeared at a restaurant after meeting Baek Se-Mi. Lee Hong-Sae overheard Gu San-Yeong saying “I killed those people” and later spoke harshly to Baek Se-Mi, injuring her with her words. However, when Gu San-Yeong woke up again, she realized that she had just blacked out and hurriedly fled.

On the other hand, outside Lee Ok-Ja’s house, Yeom Hae-Sang found buried ceramic fragments that were hidden there by her mother before she passed away. The Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost also sensed that Yeom Hae-Sang had found this item and said “You’ve found it.”

Kdrama Revenant Episode 5 review and 5 highlights,Explained

I killed them all…

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in Revenant Episode 4 (last episode) , the bugs appeared outside Yeom Hae-Sang’s house and in the hotel restroom. Yeom Hae-Sang’s phone showed 5.35 million Korean won. Could this be the money that Gu San-Yeong returned to Yeom Hae-Sang? Initially, I thought she used LJR’s card to transfer money to Yeom Hae-Sang, but this amount is not exactly 5 million won, which suggests it was spent rather than transferred.

But where did she get the money from? Could it be that Gu San-Yeong took Yeom Hae-Sang’s card? There were notifications on Yeom Hae-Sang’s phone (Gu San-Yeong received a message from Baek Se-Mi at her house before being possessed by the hair demon).

It seems like those bugs symbolize a demonic presence. From the preview of Revenant’s next episode, it feels like Gu San-Yeong might not be responsible for the murder; it could be another manifestation of a demon because these bugs haven’t been highlighted in previous episodes. The insects behind Kim woo-Jin seem to emit an aura that could possess someone and then kill LJR. Before Gu San-Yeong arrived at the restaurant, the bag was already in place, so there must be another culprit.

Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost possesses Gu San-Yeong’s consciousness at the restaurant (since Gu San-Yeong uses her left hand – hair demons are left-handed). But why would Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost do such a thing? I think it stems from its past resentment towards poverty and disdain for wealthy people (after all, successful individuals are not chosen as sacrifices). Previously, through Gu San-Yeong’s appearance, Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost expressed its resentment with dolls saying things like “Since you were lucky enough to be born into a rich family, stop causing trouble. They always spoil her and buy her whatever she wants. No wonder that brat is so rude.”

The scene at the banquet references to Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost’s inner resentment story, which aligns with Yeom Hae-Sang mentioning how poor families used to hang their children on trees for burial, as they were not considered part of the family. Therefore, they didn’t appreciate wealthy children and held more resentment towards them.

So I believe that the hair demon likely sympathizes with Gu San-Yeong’s experiences (but at the same time represents Gu San-Yeong’s desires for wealth and a better life). When it saw Baek Se-Mi boasting about passing her exam and planning to dine at an upscale restaurant, Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost couldn’t tolerate such a show-off environment. It appeared in front of everyone as someone rich because it embodies those desires within Gu San-Yeong but also does things she wouldn’t dare to do herself.

Being able to see ghosts is not necessarily a bad thing

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In the fourth episode of Revenant, Yeom Hae-Sang mentioned that he has been able to see ghosts since he was young. However, he doesn’t think it’s a bad thing because not all ghosts are scary. He can also see people who are missed but cannot be seen. This contrasts with Ms.Park, as the writer uses her character to depict a person’s “obsession” with the deceased and I feel that the Revenant writer also wants to highlight another kind of obsession in Yeom Hae-Sang’s heart through Ms.Park’s obsession with her daughter.

I remember in previous episodes of Revenant, Seo Moon-Choon always wanted Yeom Hae-Sang to let go of his pursuit for the truth behind his mother’s suicide. This scene appeared more than once in Revenant. Therefore, to some extent, Yeom Hae-Sang is actually similar to Mr.Park; both are concerned and burdened by their lost loved ones, which makes them determined to unravel their inner obsessions even if they find themselves in danger.

As for Gu San-Yeong, she used to see terrifying demons in the past. But this time at Baekchagol village when she saw his father appear, I really liked this scene in Revenant. Originally I thought Ku Kang-Mo’s soul might reveal some shocking secrets but the Revenant writer didn’t do that.

Instead, they used a few key words to portray the close relationship between Gu San-Yeong and her father – years of separation since she was five years old. Now that Gu San-Yeong possesses the curse of seeing ghosts, she may no longer consider it a curse but rather something that brings him closer emotionally to Ku Kang-Mo.I think this is why Gu San-Yeong tells Yoon Gyeong-Mun in this episode of Revenant: “Now I must know about my family and my father’s story.”

Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost has long been targeting Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s child.

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🎀 In 1995, the first case handled by Seo Moon-Choon was actually the case of Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother. Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother was also a victim of the Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost. The incident occurred in a guesthouse fire, and the police found the deceased (Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother) hanging from a beam with red bruises on both wrists. As for Yeom Hae-Sang, he was found on a nearby mountain and claimed that there were other people at the scene and that it was not a suicide. The red hair accessory was left behind at the scene, but how it was dealt with is still unknown in Revenant’s storyline.

🎀 In 1995, during an autumn field trip organized by the Folklore Department, Ku Kang-Mo took his students to conduct research. At this time, he may have been interested in Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother’s case and started researching it independently until he published his thesis in 1997. However, his theories and ideas were ignored by academia, leading to him being marginalized.

🎀 In February 1997: Ku Kang-Mo published an article titled “Korean Shamanistic Beliefs,” which mentioned the hair demon for the first time. It is possible that he began delving into this topic to study Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother’s suicide case but received no attention or recognition for his theories and ideas. This indicates that Ku Kang-Mo had already started researching the hair demon before 1997 and had been studying changes in child cemetery culture all along – though where did he obtain these “hair accessory” remains a mystery?

🎀 In 1998: Ku Kang-Mo met Yun Jeong-Won, and they conducted field investigations together. They often discussed the continuous deaths of the second child in Jangjin-Ri. After publishing one book this year, Ku Kang-Mo stopped writing books but continued to publish articles (indicating his focus on investigating the Jangjin-Ri case).

🎀 In 2000, “Seo Sang-Hoon” committed suicide in a restroom at a raw fish restaurant in southern Gangnam. He was a respected professor of Korean literature at a university but wrote derogatory comments about Professor Ku Kang-Mo being involved with cults and being a fraud in an expert column he contributed to. He strongly disliked Professor Ku Kang-Mo.

In 2002, Lee Ok-Ja and Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s second child died: Two months before Gu San-Yeong’s expected delivery date, Ku Kang-Mo told Yoon Gyeong-Mun, “The second one will die, it will die by my hands.” During this time, Ku Kang-Mo’s behavior was very strange. When he said these words, he seemed to have a feeling of being “possessed,” but at the same time, it didn’t seem like it because Ku Kang-Mo appeared to know what he was saying. He even ran away afterwards.

Personally, I feel that this scene at home is depicting the inner struggle between Ku Kang-Mo and the demon. The demon spoke threatening words earlier on, but then Ku Kang-Mo realized that he couldn’t control himself and chose to escape.

Yoon Gyeong-Mun went to Baekchagol Village countless times looking for her mother so she could give birth to her second child there. According to the content of Revenant Episode 4, villagers in Baekchagol Village mentioned something bad happening to Yun Jeong-Won’s mother during her stay there while giving birth. This should be referring to what happened when Yoon Gyeong-Mun was staying in Baekchagol Village because even before she arrived there with her second child, this demonic presence had already been following her.

While sleeping in Baekchagol Village, Yoon Gyeong-Mun heard Ku Kang-Mo say “the second one must die.” Her mother mentioned that Ku Kang-Mo appeared at home but I believe it was actually the demon disguised as him because Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s mother had opened the door which led to the death of her second child.

The mention of “the second one must die” also refers to the tragedy that occurred in Jangjin-Ri village where children who were ranked as number two kept dying. This also corresponds with what Ku Kang-Mo’s tormented spirit said to Gu San-Yeong, “This isn’t me, I’m sorry, I had no choice.” In Revenant Episode 1, Ku Kang-Mo was also haunted by the demonic presence and even encountered a manifestation of the demon in his own form. Therefore, when Ku Kang-Mo says “this isn’t me” to Gu San-Yeong, I believe he is trying to tell her that it was the “incarnation” of the demon who committed those acts of harm.

On February 25th, 2002, before reaching the expected delivery date tragedy struck. Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s child died in Baekchagol village and her mother fell into a well and died due to the influence of the demonic presence. Before her death, Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s mother told her to take Gu San-Yeong away quickly and never return home again.

This led Gu San-Yeong’s mother to insist on getting a divorce. It is evident that Yoon Gyeong-Mun’s mother was also harmed by the demonic presence which caused her fall into the well and die. Prior to this incident, I believe she must have seen the demon disguised as Ku Kang-Mo which prompted her warning for Yun Jeong-Won not to go back home again. As for why Yun Jeong-Won’s mother was eliminated by the demonic presence, I think it was because she wanted to take Gu San-Yeong away from them.

The person who gave Gu San-Yeong the hairband is indeed a “hair demon” with messy hair.

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Revenant ep 5, Hae-Sang mentioned that folklorists generally dislike touching taboos, so it is strange for someone to write a farewell letter with a red pen. Yeom Hae-Sang finally understood that it wasn’t Ku Kang-Mo who wrote the letter, which echoes our reasoning in the Revenant ep2. I was initially puzzled as to why Ku Kang-Mo would entrust such a dangerous thing to Gu San-Yeong. It turns out that demon, not Ku Kang-Mo, wrote the farewell letter.

The Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost designed Grandma to pass on the red hair accessory to Gu San-Yeong. The Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost used its manipulating hand to make Ku Kang-Mo write a letter asking Grandma to give the hairband to Gu San-Yeong. At that time, Grandma may have been possessed or transformed into the appearance of Grandma by the Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost and gave her the red hair accessory.

The scene where they exchanged items felt off and didn’t seem coincidental. Especially when Kim Seok-Ran gave something to Gu San-Yeong and deliberately covered her face afterward, it felt very suspicious. Moreover, when Gu San-Yeong touched this item, he heard “she accepted it.“

In Revenant ep 3, we also discussed theories about there being more than one Juvenile Ghosts. Based on what happened in previous episodes and considering there are five haunted objects mentioned earlier, could it be possible that there is more than one disheveled demon?

This reminds me of the scene where Grandma handed over the red hair accessory to Gu San-Yeong and a voice said “she received it.” Speaking in third person implies that demons were conversing with other demons. Also according to rituals from 1958, Choi Man-Wol probably performed Juvenile Ghost rituals not just for one child but for many, as Ku Kang-Mo mentioned that Juvenile Ghosts were summoned whenever something ominous happened in the village.

This suggests that the ritual was not a one-time occurrence. So if each item represents a vengeful spirit, it could mean that there are five disheveled demons present (red hairband, jade hairpin, black rubber band, blue ceramic shard, glass bottle). Therefore, when a female voice says “she got it,” it means another disheveled demon is executing the task of passing on the red hairband to Gu San-Yeong and saying this sentence.

The red hairband was transferred by another demon to Gu San-Yeong and not by Ku Kang-Mo’s own consciousness. However, this raises another question: why did the Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost involve Yeom Hae-Sang? It feels like it has something to do with Hae-Sang’s mother because she knows who is crucial in collecting those items and currently Hae-Sang is the only person who knows about these five objects.

Does Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost want to seek revenge on the villagers?

Revenant epsidoe 5, it is mentioned that “only the aura of the deceased can suppress items filled with Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost energy.” Therefore, the actions of the Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost causing chaos are actually revenge against the people in our village, just like what we deduced in the previous episode.

This point should be correct~ Just as Gu San-Yeong said, “Lee Mok-Dan, I’m sure that child is a demon. If I had experienced such things, even if I became a demon myself, I would want to seek revenge on those people.” So the phrase “only the aura of the deceased can suppress items filled with Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost energy” basically echoes the actions of Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost wanting to seek revenge on people in the village. Whether it’s from the ghostly resentment emitted by photos before or Ms.Park’s daughter who died by suicide for unknown reasons, I think this resentment is directed towards villagers.

But how should we interpret Ku Kang-Mo’s words? Through Episode 5 of Revenant where Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother was revealed to have buried these five things instead of digging them out.

So it can be inferred that other things were also buried there; only maybe they didn’t have time to bury Red Hair accessory. Yeom Hae-Sang opened up and then Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost killed his mother. So now it seems certain that if these five things are buried in their designated places, they might seal away demons.

However, someone near where these things are buried will definitely die~ This seems to echo Ku Kang-Mo’s words: “only the aura of victims can suppress items filled with Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost energy”. So by burying these objects in soil and causing deaths nearby, one can suppress items (the resentment on Red Hairband) filled with Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost energy.

And perhaps this could explain why Yeom Hae-Sang gets involved with Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost because she might be the only one who knows where her mother buried these things. So she would go looking for them and dig them out.

If we follow the ending of this episode in Revenant, where Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost are happy that the blue ceramic shard was dug out, it likely means that Yeom Hae-Sang survived because of what her mother did. But now Yeom Hae-Sang is being involved with Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost, so will she possibly go digging for these things and release those other Juvenile Ghosts?

But it’s strange why Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother had those dangerous things? According to the preview of Episode 6 of Revenant, could it be that Yeom Hae-Sang’s grandmother at that time disliked the existence of Yeom Hae-Sang and her mother, so she intentionally wanted to use Evil spirit Juvenile Ghost to eliminate them? 😳😳😳😳 Here I’m just speculating randomly; I don’t think Yeom Hae-Sang’s grandmother would have such evil thoughts?!