2023 Kdrama Revenant Episode 3 Recap & 5 highlights, Review

In the Korean drama “Revenant” Episode 3, San-Yeong and Hae-Sang follow clues related to demons and arrive at a new city where Jangjin-Ri used to be. There, they witness a strange tree shadow with a hanging corpse. Meanwhile, Moon-Choon and Hong-Sae encounter San-Yeong and Hae-Sang while investigating a series of suicides that occurred nearby.

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Kdrama Revenant Episode 3 Recap

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🎀 Continuing from Revenant episode 2 , a week ago, three college students committed suicide in their apartment within a week (they were all in the same grade but different majors, and there were no bruises on their bodies. They all had financial pressure).

There was no evidence of foul play, but Lee Hong-Sae discovered that the students had an anonymous page where someone posted about hearing the sound of high heels and heavy knocking on the day they died. Lee Hong-Sae found out that although the three victims didn’t know each other, they all knew someone named Lee Tae-Young who disappeared after these incidents occurred.

Gu San-Yeong and Yeom Hae-Sang went to find someone who knows Jangjin-Ri. They found out its location and also learned about the tree. Gu San-Yeong discovered that this tree is used as a burial method for unfortunate children and has attracted many people to commit suicide. It is known as “the suicide tree,” but it was destroyed ten years ago.

🎀 However, this uncle did indeed see Ku Kang-Mo because he used to come often looking for his brother who had a good relationship with him. However, after his brother’s death, his son started working on ships while his granddaughter Lee Tae-Young went to study at university. When they arrived at Study Hostel, Yeom Hae-Sang immediately saw a ghost of suicide similar to the weeping willow tree with an empty spot on its rope indicating another victim would follow soon.

But when they reached the third floor to investigate further, it disappeared without a trace. Lee Hong-Sae asked around Study Hostel’s staff and learned that Lee Tae-Young’s neighbors in room 306 also heard sounds of high heels and door impacts before she vanished one week ago along with Li Duiyong.

🎀 Gu San-Yeong also tried to find Li Duiyong’s whereabouts and unexpectedly met someone who worked with him at an aquarium store. The man in front of him asked Gu San-Yeong for Li Duiyong’s uncle’s contact information in a suspicious manner.

🎀 Yeom Hae-Sang went to find Li Duiyong’s uncle and learned that the weeping willow tree is actually a pine tree. It was said that during that time, the entire generation had pine forests.

After looking at some photos, he realized it looked exactly like the tree they saw at Study Hostel. Seo Moon-Choon couldn’t shake off Yeom Hae-Sang’s words about another person committing suicide, so he decided to investigate further into the sound of high heels and knocking by starting from reviewing surveillance footage from a few days before the incidents occurred.

🎀 Gu San-Yeong met with the boss of the fish store but found it strange how urgently he wanted to lend money to Gu San-Yeong when his mother had gone to the police station. Therefore, Gu San-Yeong didn’t borrow any money from him but received a fish as insisted by the boss instead.

🎀Seo Moon-Choon and Lee Hong-Sae discovered that Li Duoyong would regularly visit the homes of three students during a fixed day and time. It was already strange enough for him to wear the same clothes each time, but what made it even more peculiar was that Seo Moon-Choon found surveillance footage near those houses showing Li Duoyong entering the study hostels but never leaving.

There was no trace of his movements, as if he had vanished into thin air. Yeom Hae-Sang investigated and found out that all the pine trees in Jangjin-Ri were cut down and abandoned in 2010, not a single one left standing. However, Yeom Hae-Sang also accidentally noticed that the photo of the tree had changed – although the tree itself disappeared, there was still a ghostly presence in the picture. Yeom Hae-Sang speculated that perhaps Li Duoyong also possessed a similar photo and might be in danger.

He suddenly remembered how Li Duoyong’s grandmother acted strangely at home, with university clothes present as well. This led him to suspect that she might be hiding Li Duoyong.

🎀Gu San-Yeong’s mother only just learned about her grandmother’s death and became angry because Gu San-Yeong never mentioned it before. She worried something might have happened between them, but Gu San-Yeong remained silent about it. The mother wanted Gu San-Yeong to inherit their grandmother’s legacy, which Gu San-Yeong refused; however, there was a voice inside her head telling her to “accept” it, which frightened her greatly.

By accident, Li Duoyoung’s grandmother let slip that he was actually hiding from “those people,” causing her fear to drive him into hiding. At this point, Gu San-Yeong returned to the aquarium store where she discovered that both Li Duoyong and the three deceased students had records of illegal borrowing from the store owner. Li Duoyong was facing increasing interest rates that he couldn’t afford.

🎀While there, Gu San-Yeong also saw the suicide tree. The fish store owner prevented her from leaving, and it was then that Gu San-Yeong realized giving out Li Duoyoung’s granduncle’s address would put him in danger of being pursued for debt. Upon learning this, Yeom Hae-Sang rushed to the uncle’s residence only to find a chaotic scene with traces of high-heeled shoe prints.

At that moment, someone knocked on the warehouse door, triggering Yeom Hae-Sang’s childhood trauma associated with opening doors. Despite his fear, he mustered up courage to open it and discovered that the person wearing high heels wasn’t a woman at all – not a ghost or someone who vanished on surveillance footage – but rather a man disguised as a woman to deceive others.

🎀Gu San-Yeong arrived at the scene in haste and desperately wanted to ask Li Duoyoung if he knew Ku Kang-Mo. However, due to his state of shock and distress, Li Duoyoung couldn’t answer Gu San-Yeong’s question. Gu San-Yeong anxiously told Yeom Hae-Sang how she no longer felt like herself and didn’t even know how she managed to escape from the aquarium store earlier.

As for the photo with a ghostly presence, Li Duoyoung had already torn it apart but threw it into an aquarium instead. This explained why sending fish caused people to commit suicide; because through those fish, ghosts spread their influence among those who borrowed money.

By chance, Yeom Hae-Sang also learned that Gu San-Yeong received one of those fish; thus making her another potential victim connected to the case. Meanwhile, Seo Moon-Choon reviewed the aquarium store’s surveillance footage (with two bruises on his wrist) and discovered that the owner himself broke the fish tank, while a chillingly smiling Gu San-Yeong stood nearby.

Kdrama Revenant Episode 3 review and 5 highlights

3 University Students Case

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I really like how the writer in Episode 3 of Revenant created suspense by making the audience think it was a ghost, but it turned out to be a human plot twist. Especially when Lee Du-yong appeared to vanish on camera, only later revealing that he had disguised himself as a woman and changed clothes to make it seem like he disappeared into thin air. This design is truly brilliant!

The writer once again demonstrates that humans can be scarier than ghosts, but ghosts can also be just as terrifying as humans. The Revenant writer continues to follow Yeom Hae-Sang’s statement from Episode 1 that “there is an invisible hand behind suicide cases.” I believe demons seek out certain individuals because they possess negative energy and thoughts that attract demons (for example, Gu San-Yeong harbors resentment towards phone scammers), or they have some lingering grudges that resonate with demons.

In this environment filled with negativity, these factors become nourishment for demons to thrive upon. Suicide cases serve as breeding grounds for demons within high-pressure negative environments – an invisible collaboration between demon and environment resulting in an unseen murder.

In the final scene of Episode 3 of Revenant, when Gu San-Yeong releases the demon inside him to confront the fish store owner, it feels like the demon is saving Gu San-Yeong. However, it could also be possible that at that moment Gu San-Yeong simply wanted to escape and subconsciously held hatred towards loan sharks (his mother was once scammed by phone fraudsters). Therefore, perhaps the released demon manipulated this illegal lender before them because of Gu San-Yeong’s current desires – causing him to destroy his own shop – fulfilling Gu San-Yeong’s innermost wishes and thus growing stronger.

Is the demon on Gu San-Yeong one of the unjust souls under the tree?

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The “Chuitiao Tree” is a ritual where the hair of a child is hung on a tree. “Chuitiao” refers to the “corpse of a child,” which was the method used in the past to bury children (different from adults). Because they were not recognized as members of the family, they could not be buried in ancestral graves. Instead, they would be placed in jars instead of coffins and then buried in desolate areas or hung on trees. The jar containing the corpse of a child that was hung up became known as the “Chuitiao Tree.”

The demon attached to Gu San-Yeong can reasonably be inferred as one of the restless spirits from the Chuitiao Tree (although it’s unlikely that the Chuitiao Tree itself is an essential element for Prince Ghost rituals; its significance probably lies in how Red Hair Accessory Demon was hung on a tree like a wandering ghost when she died, suggesting that her grievances are likely connected to being suspended from a tree).

This overturns my conclusion from Episode 2, where I initially speculated that evil spirit attached to Gu San-Yeong was another evil spirit formed by the spirit of a girl who had been sacrificed during Juvenile ghosts rituals. However, it now appears that Revil spirit = Juvenile ghost, meaning that these rituals transform girls’ vengeful spirits into juvenile Ghosts.

In the final scene of Episode 2 of Revenant, it shows Choi Man-Wol selecting a little girl from the village in 1958. This seems to resemble a practice where children are needed to complete the ritual summoning of Prince Ghosts. Since Ku Kang-Mo’s thesis is about “Korean Shamanistic Beliefs,” it can be inferred that Choi Man-Wol seeks out these young girls to perform witchcraft and ultimately sacrifice them, possibly as a means of offering their vengeful spirits or fulfilling her own desires. Therefore, this behavior appears to involve making deals with demons, aligning with how demons thrive by satisfying human desires.

Through the screen, it can be seen that the children who were taken away are all from poor families in the village. This echoes Gu San-Yeong’s cunning complaint while holding a Salzburg doll: “Since you were lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family, don’t make trouble there. They always spoil her and buy her whatever she wants. No wonder that brat is so rude.”

At present, I still don’t know if this is an expression of resentment made by the “disheveled demon” occupying Gu San-Yeong’s consciousness. If it is, then this scene can resonate with the story of resentment in the disheveled demon’s mind. Perhaps the disheveled demon dislikes this little girl for not cherishing what she currently has (which resonates with Yeom Hae-Sang saying that poor families used to hang their deceased children on trees and they weren’t considered part of the family, so they don’t appreciate children from wealthy families and naturally have more resentment).

So summarizing after watching Episode 3 Revenant, the disheveled demon is one of the innocent girls sacrificed under witchcraft. These children are all young girls from impoverished families but also deceived and sacrificed due to their poverty (this echoes the story of another girl in Episode 2 who wasn’t registered as well; it seems to be echoing those who aren’t recognized by their families and harbor resentment).

According to Gu San-Yeong’s internal demons, she feels angry towards wealthy girls because they are not satisfied with what they have, representing her belief that poverty is the main cause of her current unjust situation.

Juvenile Ghost Ritual and Red Hair Accessory

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🎀1958 Jangjin-Ri: All the little girls in the village were gathered under the tree where the wizard performed his ritual. Choi Man-Wol was holding a hair accessory, seemingly searching for the next girl to be sacrificed. In the end, Choi Man-Wol killed one of the girls.

there are netizens sharing that “Juvenile Ghost” is actually a “Fetus Ghost”. In Korean folklore, it is composed of souls of deceased infants or aborted/miscarried babies. However, as time passed, there have been various methods to create Juvenile Ghosts. The only constant is that “Juvenile Ghosts are created through malicious means.”

Most often, it starts with kidnapping children and subjecting them to extreme hunger and torture for several days. This causes immense resentment in their hearts. Then when they can no longer bear hunger, they are tempted with containers or bamboo tubes filled with food and killed at that moment. Their vengeful spirits attach themselves to these containers (although I think it’s possible that the screenwriter may have made some changes; perhaps the girl’s spirit is attached to a red hair accessory, jade hairpin, black rubber band or other objects).

This process aligns with Choi Man-Wol’s actions in Revenant Episode 2’s final scene. Based on what we see on screen, after being locked up for several days, the girl holds a red hair accessory while Choi Man-Wol uses food to lure her out before seizing an opportunity to kill her. In our previous analysis of Revenant articles regarding “Red Hair Accessory,” we speculated that it serves as an element for summoning Juvenile Ghosts. Therefore, currently I am considering that along with Juvenile Ghost cultivation rituals; Red Hair Accessory might indeed be an object possessed by her vengeful spirit.

Juvenile Ghost may not be the only one? Is Gu San-Yeong just one of them?

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According to the plot presented in the first two episodes of Revenant, as well as the mention of five haunted items, could it be that there is more than one demon? This reminds me of the scene where Grandma gives the Red hair accessory to Gu San-Yeong and a voice says “she received it”.

The use of third person pronouns in this sentence suggests that demons are communicating with each other. Moreover, based on the 1958 ritual, Choi Man-Wol should not have performed this prince ghost ritual for just one child but for many (such as older girls and girls with severed fingers; they are likely Juvenile Ghosts).

Therefore, if each item represents a vengeful spirit, there may be five scattered hair demons present (Red hair accessory, jade hairpin, black rubber band, blue ceramic shard, glass bottle). So when a female voice says “she received it,” it means that a certain scattered hair demon is executing the task of delivering the Red hair accessory to Gu San-Yeong.

Therefore, we can speculate that the Red hair accessory represents a larger girl’s demon and I personally believe it is attached to Gu San-Yeong – only then does transferring make sense. As for another demon involved in carrying out transfer tasks, it should be related to girls with severed fingers. However, we are still unsure about what exactly the little girl represents.

Why did the hair demon kill grandma? Was it to help Gu San-Yeong?

In the third episode of Revenant, there are many references to the demon in 1958. The plot revolves around Gu San-Yeong inheriting his grandmother’s legacy, which seems to echo the sorrowful portrayal of the demon’s impoverished family in the past. In the previous episode, we discussed possible reasons for why the demon killed his grandmother (as follows):

A)): Regarding why the demon attacked his grandmother: Based on some connections in the scenes, we can see that in Episode 2 of Revenant, his grandmother discovered the contents of a book called “Hair Accessorry,” which Yeom Hae-Sang happened to have and wanted. At her location, we can see that this book was burned, indicating that one motive for the hair-demon was to destroy this book. This detail echoes Ku Kang-Mo’s death process in Episode 1.

B)): As for why Ku Kang-Mo was also targeted by the hair-demon besides being Gu San-Yeong’s father, I couldn’t understand at first. However, I believe it is because the hair-demon wanted to prevent Ku Kang-Mo from knowing its secret identity as well as from eliminating it. When Ku Kang-Mo returned home, he immediately looked through “Hairband” and took out a hidden hairband he had kept for a long time. Therefore, it is likely that just like with his motive to get rid of his grandmother, one purpose of the hair-demon was to avoid others discovering its existence or trying to eliminate it.

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However, in the plot of the third episode of Revenant, the writer added a different kind of darkness by giving the evil spirit a motive to kill Grandma. I think there are many reasons why the long-haired demon would kill Grandma. One reason is as mentioned above, it doesn’t want Ku Kang-Mo and Grandma to discover its existence. Another reason is because of Gu San-Yeong’s subconscious hidden desire caused by her financial struggles and economic pressures. Due to the need for money, greed can arise in one’s heart. Although Gu San-Yeong didn’t show it, the longing for money has already been sensed by the long-haired demon.

Another motive that I also think is because of how well the long-haired demon treats Gu San-Yeong. As Yeom Hae-Sang said before, ghosts grow stronger based on satisfying people’s desires.

So when the evil spirit gets rid of Grandma, it benefits Gu San-Yeong. Based on its past resentment towards poverty, it allows Gu San-Yeong to have thoughts about accepting Grandma’s inheritance and thus strengthens itself. Therefore, when “accepting” crosses Gu San-Yeong’s mind, it is actually the voice of the long-haired demon urging her to satisfy her desires.

Of course, this also echoes back to how in its past life as a sacrifice sent by its family due to poverty issues and being unrecognized within their lineage because of their poor status; even being buried hanging from a tree with no proper burial rites – all these sorrows are experienced by both sides: Gu San-Yeong and herself (the long-haired demon).