2023 Kdrama Revenant Episode 4 Recap & 3 highlights, Review

Summary of the Korean drama series “Revenant” episode 4: San-Yeong reveals a mysterious number that is definitely related to evil spirits. While investigating the meaning of the number, San-Yeong and Hae-Sang arrive at Baekchagol Village where they experience unexpected events.

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Kdrama Revenant Episode 4 Recap

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🎀Continuing from Revenant episode 3, the evil spirit inside Gu San-Yeong appears and meets Yeom Hae-Sang. They discuss whether it was her or Yeom Hae-Sang who caused the death of Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother. Yeom Hae-Sang explains that the hair accessory he has is something his parents gave to a little girl who had just started growing hair, and it serves as a symbol of their wishes, like an amulet. Although they are unsure if it belongs to the evil spirit, Yeom Hae-Sang vows to find out its name.

At this point, the evil spirit mentions the numbers 21 and 176. Later on, Gu San-Yeong reveals that these numbers seem familiar to her as if someone has been repeating them in her mind. However, she feels uneasy because she has been experiencing memory lapses recently.

Yeom Hae-Sang receives some money and intends to help Gu San-Yeong so that she won’t be manipulated by the evil spirit. Initially reluctant, Gu San-Yeong eventually accepts only what she needs from him. Meanwhile, Yeom Hae-Sang returns home and gets rid of all alcohol in his house to prevent giving any advantage to the evil spirit.

Seo Moon-Choon remains fixated on bruises found on the fish store owner’s hand and finds Gu San-Yeong’s behavior during their encounter suspicious. He later discovers a partially restored newspaper article stating “Little Girl Missing for Two Weeks.” On another note, Lee Hong-Sae recalls how impoverished Gu San-Yeong was during high school days and becomes curious about what happened during that time period.

Gu San-Yeong visits her grandmother’s house hoping to find out if her father left any information regarding the numbers 21 and 176 related to ghosts since he knew them well. She learns from Ku Kang-Mo’s book published in 1998 that Juvenile Ghosts are children who died from smallpox or hunger.

Suddenly, they hear strange noises inside the house, but it turns out to be Yeom Hae-Sang who has also arrived there. Seeing the book, he mentions how odd it is that Ku Kang-Mo hasn’t published any books since 1998.

Gu San-Yeong wonders if Yeom Hae-Sang, who can see ghosts, isn’t afraid of them. However, for Yeom Hae-Sang, being able to see ghosts is a blessing because not all ghosts are terrifying and he can also see people whom others miss but cannot see. The two of them fail to find any information about the numbers they’re looking for. Gu San-Yeong discovers a forbidden rope used for exorcism but notices that its hanging position is reversed; normally it should be hung outside the door, but here it is inside.

Suddenly, Gu San-Yeong stumbles upon her parents’ room before their divorce and realizes that Ku Kang-Mo had been living in this room all along and deeply missed his wife and Gu San-Yeong. However, Gu San-Yeong’s mother still despised him without revealing why. Inadvertently, Gu San-Yeong discovers that February 25th, 2022 was her due date even though she was already five years old by then.

🎀Li Duiyong said that he met Ku Kang-Mo a year ago. At that time, before his grandfather passed away, Ku Kang-Mo would visit the hospital to visit him. Ku Kang-Mo was investigating the missing child “Lee Mok-Dan” in the village. It was said that at that time, she disappeared for no reason, causing panic among the villagers. When she passed by the weeping willow tree, a witch beckoned to her. Some say she disappeared while playing hide and seek, while others say she was abducted.

Yeom Hae-Sang and Gu San-Yeong went to find the article found by Ku Kang-Mo. On the other hand, Seo Moon-Choon found an elder to inquire about this report. It happened in June 1958 when a little girl went missing for several days and was later found dead in a gruesome state with one finger missing – clearly indicating foul play.

Meanwhile, Gu San-Yeong discovered in the report that it mentioned “creating a repulsive heartless wizard,” who kidnapped children and starved them for 17 days before giving them food through bamboo tubes. Then when they were fully engrossed in eating, he killed them with a knife and used their fingers as “divine bodies.”

🎀Such creation of repulsive beings is strictly prohibited; these beings refer to dolls made of straw or branches used to curse others or starve children alive and turn them into ghosts – known as Juvenile Ghosts. Juvenile Ghosts usually refer to restless spirits of children who died young (such as from smallpox or starvation).

Therefore, Yeom Hae-Sang speculated that Lee Mok-Dan must have become a Juvenile Ghost and what Gu San-Yeong mentioned as 21-176 referred to page numbers in Ku Kang-Mo’s book which hinted at clues for them. Yeom Hae-Sang also discovered that Baechigi Village would be the place to search for clues. The village was about to hold a ritual, mostly organized by elderly people. Grandma Park hoped that the village head would stop organizing such rituals as everyone kept dying and there were fewer and fewer people available to organize them.

🎀Seo Moon-Choon investigated the report on missing children but found out that the reporter’s daughter claimed her father had hanged himself on the day of publication, with bruises on his wrists. However, she thought Seo Moon-Choon got the report from Ku Kang-Mo because a year ago, Ku Kang-Mo came asking for drafts as well. On the other hand, residents of Baekchagol Village said that Ku Kang-Mo lived across their house and something bad happened to Grandma Park.

Gu San-Yeong now realized that his mother’s hometown was Baekchagol Village and she wanted him to leave quickly after finding out about it. At the same time, an old man in the village suddenly passed away, and Gu San-Yeong saw several restless spirits there. Yeom Hae-Sang said that this old man was harmed by foreign ghosts and there seemed to be an alarming number of foreign ghosts in the village.

🎀The villagers began to believe that misfortune befell them due to organizing straw doll activities during rituals and protested against continuing these events with their village headman. Yeom Hae-Sang advised all elderly people to return home quickly without looking back while walking carefully while keeping their eyes on the ground; they should also lock their doors at home. But the village headman couldn’t understand why they had so many foreign ghosts when they sincerely held annual events aimed at driving away those spirits? It turned out that one straw doll went missing – Gu San-Yeong heard today only Grandma Park cleaned up in the ritual hall.

Yeom Hae-Sang immediately saw foreign ghosts entering Grandma Park’s house, but these foreign ghosts were actually her daughter who had returned. Her daughter left the countryside for Seoul and suffered in unknown ways before committing suicide. Now she no longer hides from her daughter and is willing to let her daughter attach herself to her as they walk together. So Grandma Park burned the straw doll to prevent her daughter from being driven away. Gu San-Yeong also saw Ku Kang-Mo’s restless spirit.

Kdrama Revenant Episode 4 review and 2 highlights

Evil spiritJuvenile Ghost is seeking revenge on the villagers? (temporary speculation)

The plot Revenant episode 4, can be summarized as follows: Is the motive of the evil spirit actually to seek revenge on the villagers who witnessed its death without helping? Lee Mok-Dan spreads his resentment towards them in various ways, just like in Episode 3 of Revenant where a college student committed suicide due to an introduction case, and in this episode where a reporter who reported on Lee Mok-Dan’s disappearance immediately dies.

In addition, Ku Kang-Mo himself wants to find the original manuscript of the report, which means that this manuscript will also spread resentment~ The grandmother Park in Episode 4 of Revenant also commits suicide due to some difficulties she encountered.

I don’t know if her daughter’s death is related to Lee Mok-Dan or not, but with such a spreading method, it is highly likely that it all originated from Lee Mok-Dan’s retaliation against the villagers who may have witnessed its death without helping. (But this paragraph is only a temporary speculation for now)

Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother is actually the one who released the seal on the “other” Juvenile Ghost?

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In the fourth episode of Revenant, it suddenly made me think of a very important question: “Why did Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother know to dig those things?” This is because Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother was involved in the initial suicide case (Seo Moon-Choon mentioned that strange suicides started happening after this case):

🎀 1958 Jangjin-Ri: All the young girls in the village were gathered under a tree for a witchcraft ritual. Choi Man-Wol had a hair accessory in her hand, and it seemed like she was looking for the next girl as a sacrifice. (But this scene is strange because Lee Mok-Dan, who was also among the chosen group, disappeared mysteriously while playing hide-and-seek and her body was found days later). So we don’t know if there was any specific selection process within the crowd at that time; it’s highly possible that the witch simply looked for someone among them. (In an article from June 1958, it mentioned “the heartless witch who created ‘Yeon-myeong'”).

🎀 June 1958 report: As soon as news about Lee Mok-Dan’s disappearance came out, a reporter committed suicide by hanging himself and had bruises on his hands = characteristics of an evil spirit Juvenile Ghost.

🎀 In 1995, Seo Moon-Choon’s first case actually involved Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother. She was also one of the victims under the control of an evil spirit. The incident occurred at a guesthouse fire where police discovered a deceased person (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 present at the scene besides them. He also stated that the deceased did not commit suicide.

In the storyline of Revenant, it seems that Yeom Hae-Sang was sick when he was young, and his mother went to collect those things. Later on, Yeom Hae-Sang did get better. Before that, when he went to open the door, the evil spirit’s shadow was on Yeom Hae-Sang’s shadow. Initially in Episode 2 of Revenant, I speculated that the things collected by his mother should be something that can break free from the evil spirit. However, later on, I wondered if it is possible that his mother “might have” wanted to make a deal with the evil spirit to let Yeom Hae-Sang live? Another important point is why Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother knew about collecting those things; it could be a foreshadowing because at this time Ku Kang-Mo hadn’t researched this demon yet. How did she know to collect these things and even know where they were buried?

So my current speculation is that Yeom Hae-Sang was likely possessed by the Red hair accessory evil spirit, and then her mother dug up those things to release the seals of other Juvenile Ghosts. She wanted to make a deal with the evil spirit to save Yeom Hae-Sang’s life because her mother’s greatest desire was for her child to survive, which also happened to be her biggest weakness.

This may also support the previous inference that there might be more than one Juvenile Ghost, each possessing different objects. This can also explain why there was a third-person voice saying “She received it” when transferring the Red hair accessory.

Furthermore, in Episode 4 Revenant, Ku Kang-Mo’s forbidden rope inside his house was actually hanging on the door. Normally, if you want to exorcise spirits, you would hang it outside the door to prevent evil spirits from entering. But if it’s hung inside the door instead, could it mean they are trying to prevent any evil spirits inside from escaping outside? These wandering ghosts outside might be other Juvenile Ghosts connected with the evil spirit.

This can explain why Yeom Hae-Sang made a pact with them in order for herself to survive and released other Juvenile Ghosts as a condition. It can also explain why “She received it” sounds like part of a conversation. Therefore, Yeom Hae-Sang’s mother should have released all of these sealed Juvenile Ghosts in order to save Yeom Hae-Sang (?).

🎀On February 25, 2002, the expected due date: When Gu San-Yeong was five years old, his mother deceived him by saying that Ku Kang-Mo had died when in fact they were getting divorced. So this is likely the expected due date of Gu San-Yeong’s younger sibling, but it may have been preceded by a terrible experience that led Gu San-Yeong’s mother to insist on divorce (?)