Forest of Time 2 & Tree 1
Ryung-Gu and Jae-Soo break one of the Reapers’ rules by saving each other’s life. This sets off a chain reaction that leads to Jae-Soo’s father not killing himself.
Jae-Soo’s dad narrowly avoids hitting his son, using his powers to stop his car completely. This has far wider implications, given Jae-Soo is at the hospital. The doctors aren’t doing anything with Jae Soo’s mum given they haven’t paid their hospital bills yet.
The IMF situation is causing them pain and Ryeon eventually slaps Jae-Soo’s father across the face as a way of helping him see sense. After all, will Jae-Soo and his wife be happy with a paycheck without him there? Of course not. ..
Ryeon and Jun-Woong head to a local restaurant to cook up some fried chicken from scratch. After boxing them up, they return to the present with a message on the front: “Failure means you need to try again.”
Jae-Soo’s father is a strong advocate for doing right by the family and making sure he does better.
Jun-Woong and Ryeon skip back to the past and bundle into the hospital room with their chicken suits, wishing Jae-Soo a happy birthday and consequently helping to jog his memory in the present too. Simultaneous memories intertwine as one, allowing the suicide rate indicator to go down.
Jun-Woong rushes out and grabs a kid. This happens to be Jun-Woong as a child, whom he drops off by his father. Older Jun-Woong admits that he misses his pa and in doing so, brings him back for a family photo. Jun-Woong’s father just fades back in. No word yet if this is going to have an impact on the future.
We follow Seo Ju-Wan as he is taken into custody and interrogated by the police. He tells them about a group of Death Angels who chased him down and took him into custody because they believed he was guilty of sexual assault. He also tells them that the punishment he received in the land of the living was barely scratches the surface of what he deserves.
Jung-Gil interrupts the young Ryeon as she’s about to see the other soul. He admits there is another one out there and as they look across a balcony, they see him almost fall. This happens to be the man whom Ryeon tried to save back when she was a rookie.
Since Jae-Soo’s escape, Ryeon has made great strides and is now a powerful Reaper. With the case of the Jae-Soo escape all but wrapped up, what’s next for our Reapers?
The King of Heaven has caught wind of this and she’s not happy. Ryeon faces disciplinary action after breaking the rule about interfering with human affairs.
She’s been forced to wear a ring that can’t be removed, which also negates her powers for seven days. ..
Jun-Woong follows Ryeon out of the office, believing he’s responsible for what’s happened. He encourages her to punch him but instead she scoffs at that and asks him to get her three coffees.
She meets a fellow spirit at the coffee shop, who is delighted that he can see her.
Na-Young actually passed away in the hospital earlier on this episode but when Jung-Gil arrived to take her to the afterlife, she fled. Before she did, she was shown the RM team and since then, she’s been hiding out. When Ryeon and Ryung find out, they’re not exactly thrilled. They immediately decide to report her to the Escort Team… but there’s a problem.
Na-Young’s distraught partner is on the verge of committing suicide. After overdosing on pills, he’s in a critical state and this seems to have been as a direct result of what happened to Na-Young.
Ryeon and the team find themselves in a conflict of interest when they decide to help out the runaway. Now, given she’s related to saving Woo-Jin, it technically falls under Ryeon’s jurisdiction rather than Jung-Gil’s. When he finds out, he’s furious, holding Ryeon up against the wall by her throat. Eventually he relinquishes his grip and walks away. ..
Na-Young, a former ballet dancer, tells of how she injured her ankle and how Woo-Jin, a fellow student, encouraged her to continue. Despite the rain, Woo-Jin helped Na-Young to stay dry and helped her to continue with her studies. ..
Na-Young saw him again, busking out in the street. This time when the rain starts pouring, she was there to help him and use her umbrella.
The two continue to spend time together, eventually messaging more and developing feelings for each other. It’s a really beautiful set of scenes, especially as the pair share their first kiss under the pink-lit lights of the café. ..
Ryeon tries to convince Woo-Jin not to commit suicide. Na-Young isn’t the reason why he’s unravelled like this though… it’s actually because he killed her. But how?
The Episode Review
The final episode of the week features a nice twist that helps to finish it off on a high. The conflicting ideas between Reaper departments is a nice way of adding some tension between the afterlife characters. ..
Ryeon is punished by not being able to use her abilities by breaking the code about interfering in human affairs. Of course, that opens up a whole can of worms insofar as they’re actually interfering with human choice by physically stopping them from committing suicide and changing the future. Or, well, a little part of it anyway. ..
The show has not yet shown any repercussions for Ryeon, who is immediately using her abilities anyway. The Jae-Woo case is tucked away neatly, but it will be interesting to see if this series actually starts to tie together all these cases and the mistakes made along the way. ..
Jun-Woong is more of a passenger during the second half of this chapter, although seeing more of Ryeon’s history is certainly welcome. Hopefully we see the same thing for the other Reapers. Either way though, this “Tree” chapter actually looks to be quite the intriguing case, especially if it’s true that Woo-Jin did kill her.
