2023 Kdrama Revenant Episode 1 Recap & 3 highlights, Review: Don’t open the door!

The first episode of the Korean drama “Revenant” has received high praise for its quality visuals. Instead of using jump scares in scary scenes, it uses techniques that create a sense of unease and creepiness, such as the scene where Gu San-Yeong is sleeping on a table and suddenly stands up in the mirror without any sound or dialogue.

The director, Kim Jin-man, is skilled at emphasizing certain elements and repeating them to deeply embed them in the audience’s minds. For example, in the first episode, he repeatedly emphasizes “opening doors” and “seeing oneself in mirrors,” which made me hesitant to look into mirrors even after finishing watching! These actions are so close to our daily lives that we instinctively wonder if there might be something wrong with our reflection when we do them.

Kdrama Revenant Episode 1 Recap

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🎀On a rainy night, Ku Kang-Mo hurriedly returned home and locked the door, fearing that demons might come in. However, a demon disguised as Kim Seok-Ran’s voice lured him to open the door and killed him. Later on, Kim Seok-Ran found Kang-Mo hanging from the beam dead. Meanwhile, Gu San-Yeong was struggling to make ends meet in Seoul after her mother lost all their savings due to phone fraud. She went to Han River Bridge where she sensed something strange but couldn’t stop a man possessed by demons from jumping off the bridge.

🎀Yeom Hae-Sang received a letter from Ju Mo about helping Gu San-Yeong if he died. On the other hand, Gu San-Yeong learned that her father was not dead when she was five years old but had just passed away recently. Her grandmother gave Ku Kang-Mo’s heirloom to pass it on to Gu San-Yeong which triggered memories of a little girl and hearing someone say “she received it.” When her mother saw this heirloom with Gu San-Yeong, she became nervous because she knew how terrifying those things were.

🎀The next morning while sleeping peacefully at home, Gu San-Yeong’s body unknowingly killed phone scammers who called her earlier – revealing that she was already possessed by demons. Yeom Hae-Sang told her about being possessed and warned that people around her would die for real if they wished for death near her since there are dangerous demons attached to her body now.

🎀Gu San-Yeong didn’t believe any of this until Yeom Hae-Sang asked her to look into the mirror where she saw an unusual reflection of herself as proof of possession. The police came later asking about what happened between 7-8 am on that day; however Lee Hong-Sae believed that Gu San-Yeong was not lying because the surveillance footage showed her leaving late and that the phone scammer’s video only had one person in it.

🎀 Seo Moon-Choon told Yeom Hae-Sang that Gu San-Yeong was approached by a demon, who also killed Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother. However, Seo Moon-Choon hoped that Yeom Hae-Sang could let go of the obsession because as a police officer, he knew it was impossible to catch ghosts and it was too difficult to prove their existence.

Besides, how can one catch something intangible? Gu San-Yeong went to look for Baek Se-Mi’s rental place in Seoul and caught up with her. However, in the middle of the night, a group of junior high school students were secretly filming inside (one person had “4237” written on his hand).

Later on, one student wearing a blue cap died outside which made Gu San-Yeong feel guilty thinking if he caused this death. She had no choice but to go back and find Yeom Hae-Sang.

🎀 But when Yeom Hae-Sang saw that the demon on Gu San-Yeong did not grow bigger, she confirmed with Kim Jin-wook that another demon caused it. Gu San-Yeong caught one of the people who filmed them that night while Yeom Hae-Sang noticed injuries on their hands and faces.

Also unexpectedly, Gu San-Yeong found out that the fourth person they saw was actually a ghost (the person with “4237” written on their hand), which scared both students. Therefore,Yeom Hae-Sang said they were possessed by ghosts so she would handle it immediately.

She also reminded Gu San-Yeong about how different things are inside and outside doors; doors connect these worlds together.Yeom-Ha Sang learned from her investigation that Kim Jin-wook bullied transfer students before causing them to die; now this transfer student has become an unjust spirit seeking revenge.The password “4237” represents the door, which Yeom Hae-Sang discovered. Meanwhile, Gu San-Yeong also saw Chung Hyun-woo’s unjust spirit appearing in the mirror.

Kdrama Revenant Episode 1 review and 3 highlights

What is the story of Demon’s past? Intentionally using Gu San-Yeong as a host?

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The demon who killed Ku Kang-Mo was the “loose hair demon” who possessed him through the “red hairband” method. This will also be a key point in the plot. Through the binding marks on Ku Kang-Mo’s hands and his final state of being hung from a beam, it seems that this was done by the prince demon with a hairband in the book.

(In episode one, the director did not show where the demon who transformed into Ku Kang-Mo went after becoming human-shaped.

It should have been attached to the red hairband, but there should be other demons that loose-hair demon can control first through Kim Seok-Ran’s way and then attach to Gu San-Yeong through the medium of red hairbands because when Gu San-Yeong touched it, there was a girl’s voice saying “she received it.” Speaking from this third-person perspective means that it is not directly from Demon itself but another demon responsible for executing tasks.

This seems to be somewhat similar to Kim Jin-wook’s case where he bullied Chung Hyun-woo to death, but in his phone call, there was a “girl laughing sound.” So it feels like there is a demon manipulating Chung Hyun-woo’s unjust soul and letting these souls take revenge. Therefore Yeom Hae-Sang said: “There exists an invisible hand in suicide cases; ancient laws have rules threatening people with death.” The purpose of those laws made by people who were threatened and coerced into choosing self-destruction due to their grievances is to retaliate against those who caused others’ deaths. They believe that this unseen hand is actually behind suicide cases.”

Therefore, perhaps Loose Hair Demon manipulates these ghosts with grievances behind them since she herself has too much grievance and cannot stand those demons with strong grievances, so she helps them to take revenge.

However, I think it’s interesting that the director chose to cut into a scene of heavy rain pouring down on a “model taxi.” We can see that Ku Kang-Mo is quite panicked and immediately sets up a barrier as soon as he enters the door.

There is also a detail where the director has a close-up shot of Demon standing behind Kim Seok-Ran’s door already, but Demon did not attack Kim Seok-Ran directly. Instead, she went straight to find Ku Kang-Mo. This way we can reasonably speculate that before taking the taxi ride, Ku Kang-Mo had already sensed that Demon was coming for him and there must be some “reason” why he was targeted so relentlessly.

Moreover, did Ku Kang-Mo intend to give the relic to Gu San-Yeong from the beginning? As a father, I don’t think he would intentionally leave such a dangerous item as an inheritance for Gu San-Yeong.

Just like how the Hair Demon can manipulate other spirits, it used another demon to make Kim Seok-Ran pass on the red hairband to Gu San-Yeong. Especially when Kim Seok-Ran deliberately covered her face after giving the item to Gu San-Yeong and said “she accepted it,” something felt off.

After all, demons attack when they want to attack; why create a scenario where Ku Kang-Mo appears to have committed suicide? Therefore, I suspect that Ku Kang-Modemon purposely made it look like Ku Kang-Mo committed suicide so that people wouldn’t suspect demonic involvement and intentionally left something behind for Gu San-Yeong so that it could continue its existence.

But why did the Hair Demon find Gu San-Yeong? Based on my own speculation, in 1997 when Gu San-Yeong was five years old, her mother requested a divorce from Ku Kang-Mo and even claimed that he had died in order to prevent contact between him and their daughter.

Therefore, according to the letter left by Ku Kang-Mo for Yeom Hae-Sang stating his wish for her take care of Gu San-Yeong indicates that he knew early on that the Hair Demon would target her. In 1997, perhaps there was some contact between Gu San-Yeong and demon but it failed which scared her mother into taking her away.

Especially since Gu San-Yeon seems able connect with demons herself – at Han River Bridge she didn’t seem like she wanted commit suicide because of how dazed and fearful she looked – indicating she may have some kind of connection with them naturally.

Of course, I also believe that demons become demons because of past grievances and regrets. Usually, the formation of a demon is due to unresolved issues and resentment which causes them to linger in the human world and harm others.

According to Yeom Hae-Sang’s statement “there is an invisible hand behind suicide cases, ancient laws have rules for forcing people to death,” meaning those who are threatened or coerced into taking their own lives due to unbearable grievances seek revenge on those who caused their deaths.

They believe that this invisible hand is the true culprit behind suicide cases. Therefore, demons are the real culprits in suicide cases; however, it’s worth exploring why they became demons in the first place – what happened that made this “Hair Demon” die with grievances and stay in the human world causing harm?

The backstory of Hair Demon awaits further revelation as we slowly uncover its ultimate solution: allowing them let go of their attachments and depart peacefully from this world just like Yeom Hae-Sang said: “You must listen to ghosts tell you their names and reasons for staying here.”

There is an invisible hand in suicide cases, which is actually murder.

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The opening scene with Gu San-Yeong was interesting. I kept hearing passersby saying lines like “I really want to quit my job,” “It’s such nice weather, I want to quit my job,” and “I really need a three-day break.” This made me wonder how much these people wanted to quit their jobs XD

Of course, there must be a purpose for this scene. The busy passersby around Gu San-Yeong represent the oppressive environment she lives in. Although she doesn’t seem suicidal when she goes to the Han River Bridge later on, her negative attitude towards society is evident when her mother tells her that the police caught a phone scammer who took their money.

If most people are oppressed and have negative emotions due to the societal environment, then these become demons’ food because people harbor strong resentment towards others (such as Gu San-Yeong’s deep hatred of phone scammers).

This echoes Yeom Hae-Sang’s statement that “there is an invisible hand in suicide cases; ancient laws had rules about threatening someone into death.” These laws were created by those who couldn’t resist oppression and chose self-harm as revenge against those who caused others’ deaths. They believed that the invisible hand was the true culprit behind suicide cases.”

The director uses every person around Gu San-Yeong saying they want to quit or complaining about life as a way of depicting Korea’s societal environment as oppressive. When Yeom Hae-Sang sees some demons finding a man and making him jump off a bridge, it seems likely that he also had grievances and negative emotions in his life which attracted demons.

I believe demons will find certain individuals because they possess negative energy or thoughts that attract them (like Gu San-Yeong’s own resentment towards phone scammers), or they resonate with some grudges held by demons. This environment filled with negative emotions creates a breeding ground for these demon’s avatars, which is why Yeom Hae-Sang tells Gu San-Yeong that “the people around you who you hate or wish would disappear will die, and the demon will satisfy one person’s desire to grow stronger.”

Therefore, in summary, suicide cases are a petri dish created by high-pressure negative environments that feed demons. Suicide cases are an invisible murder caused by two invisible hands: demons and the societal environment.

What is the modus operandi of the evil spirits committing crimes?

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According to Gu San-Yeong’s “alibi” in the suicide case of telephone scammers, demon’s modus operandi is only visible to the victims and uses methods such as catching them to manipulate them into doing things they don’t want to do.

Therefore, telephone scammers appear to be manipulated into withdrawing money, going up to the roof and throwing money, and then being forced to commit suicide. However, why Gu San-Yeong’s fingerprints were found remains a mystery – how did these fingerprints get left behind? Currently unknown, let us assume that they are Gu San-Yeong demon’s fingerprints for now.

Yeom Hae-Sang said that demon grows stronger by satisfying people’s desires, so Gu San-Yeong’s own resentment and desire to kill telephone scammers became nourishment and motivation for demon.

However, if we reverse this logic does it mean that someone wanted Ku Kang-Mo dead? In addition to Ku Kang-Mo starting contact with hair loss demons in 1997; if he had already made contact at that time it should have meant he was going to be killed then.

Moreover, before this hair loss demon had been killing people everywhere so I think there must be another reason why the hair loss demon has only now appeared seeking out Ku Kang-Mo which also relates back 15 years ago when his wife asked him for a divorce.

• 🎀 Decades ago, the demon with loose hair had contact with Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother and caused her death. Therefore, the demon has been searching for a host, and incidents of murder committed by the demon have been happening even before Ku Kang-Mo’s time. Moreover, all those unsolved cases in Seo Moon-Choon’s hands were related to it. Seo Moon-Choon’s first case was actually Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother’s case. So decades ago, Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother was also a victim under the control of the demon with loose hair. I think Ku Kang-Mo might have studied Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother’s case and got to know Yeom Hae-Sang because of it. In other words, Ku Kang-Mo, Yeom Hae-Sang, and Seo Moon-Choon gathered together because of this incident involving Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother; then Ku Kang-Mo started researching about the demon with loose hair.
  
  
• 🎀In February 1997, he published an article called “Korean Folk Beliefs,” which mentioned for the first time about the demon with loose hair (which means that he had already been studying and contacting it before that). As mentioned earlier, perhaps he began to delve into it due to his research on Yeom Hae-sung’s mother suicide case. This also means that since “before” 1997,Ku Kang-Mohad already contactedthe Demonwith Loose Hairandhadbeenstudyingthechangeofcultureinchildrens’graveyards.Gu San-Yeong saw from a picture that The Demon With Loose Hair should be a child.
  
  
• 🎀Therefore when Gu San-Yeong was five years old,his mom liedto himthatKu-Kan Mo died.This happened around 1997,andGuSan-Yeongsmother knew about it. Something must have happened at that time, which made Gu San-Yeong’s mother decide to do so. Through seeing Gu San-Yeong holding Ku Kang-Mo’s things, his mother got angry, indicating that she had also experienced a terrifying incident.
  
  

Kim Jin-wook’s death case: It was the work of Chung Hyun-woo’s vengeful spirit. There are many beings in this world that are vastly different from us, just like how everyone holds different beliefs or fears.

It turns out that Kim Jin-wook was the person who bullied transfer student Chung Hyun-woo at school, causing him to fall off a building. On Chung Hyun-woo’s hand was written “4237,” which is the password for his home’s front door. Now, Chung Hyun-woo has become a vengeful ghost seeking revenge on Kim Jin-wook.

However, I feel like this case may also be related to the hair demon because every time Chung Hyun-woo calls, there is a little girl crying non-stop on the other end.