There’s lots to love in episode 9 of Goblin, which sees fascinating developments on several fronts – Kim Shin’s will to live grows stronger and he realises he needs to persistently open doors so as to change the deity’s plans; Kim Shin and Kim Sun finally meet and Reaper gets more clarity on the historical connection shared between him, Kim Sun and Kim Shin.

Eun Tak decides to leave the Goblin household after learning the truth that pulling out the sword will result in Kim Shin’s death. She no longer feels like she belongs in the household, because she feels that Goblin never genuinely cared for her, and only brought her in to pull out the sword and end his immortality. When he first meets her, she tells him she won’t pull out the sword; subsequently, when in the forest, she asks him again if he had ever loved her. She recalls how he said he loved her in such a cold manner when she asked and sees that his plan right from the start was just to convince her that he loved her, so that she would pull out the sword.

In a touching sequence, Kim Shin confesses that to Eun Tak that he’s so fearful of loving her, and instead, he wants her to say she needs him, so that it will serve as an excuse for him to keep on living. She does exactly what he says later when she’s freezing, telling him that she needs him, to do that too and that she loves him. Later when he meets her at the top of the mountain, he tells her, “I too” – a much delayed response to her expression of love, but it’s a genuine expression of his love for her and thus she decides to return to the Goblin household. Well, that and the fact that Goblin pulls his connections to get her sacked from her job at the ski resort. LOL. I guess he more than makes up for it by paying for her course.

What we see for Kim Shin is a quiet overcoming of his fear of attaching himself to life again. He’s detached himself after living so long, because he’s witnessed so many deaths that he’s grown numb to it. However, Eun Tak has given him reason to love again and be bold enough to even confess that love – something that isn’t easy for him. The real awakening for Kim Shin comes when both Reaper and him see a man barging into the tea room to use the toilet out of desperation. He sees the power of the human will and how it can change their fate and realises that he too should be able to change his fate of the deity. His response to Eun Tak’s question of whether he wants to live with her or die with her is to live with her, even if it means wrestling with fate and the deities.

And the best part of all is that Kim Shin isn’t fighting this battle on his own, but with Reaper, who partners with him in this episode to help save Eun Tak’s life. The bromance is truly strong between them and they’ve gone beyond bickering and teasing to develop a genuine bond and partnership. Reaper informs Goblin when he receives a card with Eun Tak’s name, putting his own job in jeopardy and giving himself more work. Reaper cares for Goblin and is unafraid to tell him that he told Eun Tak the truth because he’s on her side, and doesn’t want him to die. I loved the moment when Eun Tak returned and Reaper hears Goblin’s happy thoughts about Eun Tak calling him hers. It’s hilarious and Lee Dong Wook just plays that scene so perfectly.

Things get even more exciting for the Kim Sun storyline in this episode as Kim Shin realises that she may be the reincarnation of his sister after Reaper mistakenly calls her Kim Sun. Following a brief confrontation outside, she grabs his hands which triggers a vision in Reaper of their historical connection. He starts to put the pieces together and realises she is the woman in Kim Shin’s painting and that both her and Kim Shin have an important role to play in the memories that he has lost. It’s also touching to see that Kim Sun and Eun Tak have developed a bond, and that Eun Tak does not just have a home in the Goblin household, but also in Kim Sun’s restaurant as Kim Sun plays like an elder sister role to her, telling Goblin off for hurting her and chasing her away. The final scene with our four main characters sitting together at the table is a significant one, because we know that the characters have taken significant steps in their own lives to reach that point. It’d be interesting to see what happens from this point on.

There’s a lot that this show has to intertwine – past and present, real and supernatural, life and death, joy and sorrow – and it does such a masterful job that it’s really a pleasure to watch the storyline slowly unfold. Nonetheless, I still wish that the show could tighten its storytelling by reducing its product placements and being more concise in its flashbacks. I also find the back and forth about pulling the sword to be getting dreary, since this has been going on since Episode 4. Nonetheless, it’s still a great show and I’m really looking forward to the next episode where we finally find out more about what happened in the past.

Some miscellaneous points:

• Is there more than meets the eye for Deok Hwa? Is he a deity? Sam Shin asked him out for drinks after she walked out from the bookshop. Also, after he tells Goblin that he has his ways of finding Eun Tak, we see a scene of a butterfly flying from the sky and landing on the ski resort, the butterfly being a symbol of a deity.
• The scene with secretary Kim dancing like the various pop groups was hilarious, especially when he even tried to mimic what a digital camera may look like.
• Cheesy as it is, I found the scene of Deok Hwa taking photographs of Goblin, Eun Tak and Reaper in their home extremely sweet and heartwarming. They really are such a weird yet wonderful family.
• The editing and cross-cutting in the tearoom sequence. Perfectly-timed to emphasize each character’s reaction.
• Costumery. We saw subtle changes in Eun Tak’s dressing as she graduated from high school, and shed the duffel coat for the silver parka for her part-time ski chalet job (although I’m still unimpressed by the product placement). Is it me, or was her acting less perky, more vulnerable and conflicted? Definitely preferring this.

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Wow, that was a surprisingly plot-heavy episode of Goblin with our storyline moving forward significantly compared to previous episodes. It helpfully pulls things together into a more coherent picture and it’s starting to get clearer that our story may be heading towards a tragic, sad ending.

What is becoming more evident is that Goblin’s constant protection of Eun Tak is disrupting the natural order of things in both the human and supernatural world. It’s handled in such a wacky manner early in the episode as Deok Hwa and Wang Yeo work together to cover up the vehicle pile-up he caused by through erasing all traces of it on social media and Wang Yeo altering people’s memories of it. More significant is his prevention of the bus accident later, which many Grim Reapers are already preparing for. When speaking to Wang Yeo after the incident, Wang Yeo tells her that Eun Tak is the variable and the accident was not part of her destiny because she has a Goblin boyfriend. Wang Yeo is determined to defend Eun Tak’s life at the cost of affecting many others. I’m just wondering whether all the other lives on the bus also now enter the register of lost souls because they have cheated death. We only hear that more paper work is involved, but I did wish the show went a little deeper to explain more about what kind of consequences Goblin’s intervention has.

I have to admit to not fully grasping the theory offered by Wang Yeo, but I think at this point, it still makes sense. I was initially wondering why Shin was still able to see the accident even though it’s destined that he will save her by preventing it. I believe Goblin is able to see futures that happen without his intervention and his intervention alters the futures that he initially sees. It does raise some questions though about his vision of Eun Tak 10 years down the road which he claims he’s not present in, because what he has currently seen is a future without his intervention. Would his current intervention in her life therefore affect that scene in the restaurant in ways that he cannot foresee?

This episode also brings Samshin to the forefront more prominently. We’ve seen so far that she’s the goddess of birth and fate, but how she features within the whole world hasn’t exactly been clear. In this episode, we see her working in partnership with Goblin as he stops the man from hanging himself and passes him a sandwich, while Samshin fetches his daughter to him. Goblin later tells Eun Tak that it’s not him who saves the man, but the daughter. It does seem like Samshin ultimately has more power than Goblin and Reaper, since they both speak of being subject to the power of deities.

The final scene of the episode delivers a real punch though when we realise that Shin’s plan to delay the sword pulling will not work. It’s a tragic intertwining of fates as Shin’s refusal to die will ultimately lead to Eun Tak’s death. Samshin tells him that it’s ultimately for his happiness that the sword be removed, because he wants Eun Tak to live and she will only live when she fulfills her destiny as his bride. What the ghost said earlier to Eun Tak about the birth mark fading starts to make sense too. She’s losing her identity as the Goblin’s bride and as Samshin says, death will come to find her more frequently and more severely. As this revelation is being told to Goblin, we also have a parallel conversation between Goblin and Eun Tak where she comes to the realisation on her own that removing the sword will lead to Goblin’s death.

The final scene is really an intricately crafted sequence, so emotionally powerful and richly coloured. I loved that Wang Yeo was dressed in white in this sequence, which made him appear almost angelic. He says nothing throughout the conversation, yet his eyes speak volumes as you can see his empathy and concern for both Eun Tak and Goblin. The messenger of death ironically becomes a more benign presence, whereas the goddess of birth is dressed in blood red, bringing only news of pain and tragedy.

Beyond all that’s going on with Eun Tak and Goblin, Wang Yeo and Sunny finally get a bit more significant development, though I always feel we could do with less of Goblin/Eun Tak bickering and more meaty developments on that end. The show confirms what we’ve been suspecting so long that Sunny is the reincarnation of Goblin’s sister as her real name is Kim Sun. Wang Yeo also starts to realise he’s getting glimpses into his past and memories are returning. Through a fellow reaper, he learns of a scandal within the Reaper ranks where a fellow reaper got his memories back and ran off with his wife after learning she’s a missing soul. He starts to wonder what the deities have in mind when they return lost memories, which is also happening to him.

In the midst of all that’s going on, what is equally fascinating to me is the suggestion within the world of the show that the supernatural world may not be as orderly as we’d like it to be and while there may be rules in place, there are often exceptions or agents within the world who go against the rules due to their own agendas and emotions. The deities may try to keep things in order, but they do not have full control either. It’s a supernatural world that functions by rules, but also through relationships. This connects strongly with my belief in Christianity, where we believe that while there’s Scripture to guide us, it’s ultimately our relationship with God that’s key.

[Woman in my Life: This plot-heavy episode was the writers’ Christmas gift to the audience! From introducing Reaper’s backstory to be filled in, to joining Sunny and Reaper in ill-fated union in the lantern scene, to closing the loophole of why Goblin can’t just have Eun Tak pull out the sword in eighty years’ time, and finally a deity appearing (as a woman! and also answering the mystery of who Granny/ Lady in Red is, as previously we know she is a benevolent entity but not aware that she is actually more powerful than Goblin),  and offering a major turning point as both Eun Tak and Goblin cannot have happy endings, in fact, one’s life is predicated on the other’s demise… Very thrilling stuff.]

While I’m largely enjoying the series, I’d just like to close by pointing out several issues which bother me. The first would be the increasingly blatant and overwhelming amount of product placements – I don’t mind when it naturally fits into the storyline, but when there’s random mention of Goblin getting a job just to throw in a series of product placements for BodyShop etc., it just gets too in-your-face. Secondly, Sunny is still too under-developed as a character at this point and we barely know anything about her besides her connection to the past and her liking Reaper. Finally, and more importantly, while I’m enjoying the whole divine connection between Eun Tak and Goblin, I’m finding their romance less engaging. It isn’t so clear to me why Goblin is so reluctant to let Eun Tak know that she’s his first love and why wouldn’t the Heavens allow that – given that she’s already been assigned as his bride?

It’s been an enjoyable journey thus far and I’m so excited to see the story finally gaining some momentum!

While the supernatural world of Goblin is intriguing and fascinating, it’s ultimately the chemistry between the characters that draw us in and increasingly we see that our 4 main characters – Goblin, Reaper, Deok Hwa and Eun Tak – have become a weird, but charming little family, something which arguably none of them ever had.

While Eun Tak is the only one who acknowledges that she’s never had a family at the end of the episode, I would argue that that’s the same for Goblin and Reaper too as they have lived most of their lives in isolation. We know that it’s most true for Eun Tak because she lost her mum when she was ten and while she was at her aunt’s, she was treated more as a servant than a member of the family as she slogged over chores for them and never felt any love. However, in Goblin’s household, she’s more than willing to do her part to contribute to the chores by cleaning and washing. After completing her exams, the three guys welcome her back and celebrate her joy with a cake and candle, which touches her greatly.  Following that, she even goes out with Shin to the arcade, to watch a movie and to have a meal. When Reaper is in need, he goes all the way to Baskin Robins to find her, so that she can help him answer Sunny’s call and she helps him out by pretending that he’s a manager. Deok Hwa has also become sort of like a brother figure to Eun Tak, fetching her to school daily and then teasing her about her not being the Goblin’s bride and exposing how Shin goes weak when he sees girl bands.

It’s evident that Eun Tak has indeed found family in the strangest places, yet it’s also admirable that she’s grown beyond relying on Goblin’s assistance to becoming more independent and at the end, we see that she’s taking on a second job, so as to pay rent back to Goblin and also eventually move out of his place.

As for Goblin, his near-death experience at the end of the last episode has made him realise how much he actually wants to live. In the previous episodes, the realisation that Eun Tak is the Goblin’s bride led him to obsess continually about death and departing from this life.  However, in this episode, he no longer struggles and there’s a certain peace in him in choosing to live. When asking grandfather back for his scroll, the grandfather tells him, “If I dare make a suggestion, could you give up trying to die and consider living instead?”. While in subway, Eun Tak questions him if he still wants to go and he tells her that he doesn’t want to go, but if the bride appears, that choice is no longer his. When questioned by Deok Hwa after helping Reaper out at the police station about his special power, Goblin tells Deok Hwa that his special power is “staying alive”. In this episode, Goblin is no longer as melancholic before and we certainly see him smiling more, teasing Eun Tak more and simply having fun. Death is no longer a looming shadow over his life. We see him running with her to school with such enthusiasm and energy in his eyes, as compared to his walks with her in the previous episode. Indeed, we can see that Goblin’s life is ‘shining’ because he has accepted the Goblin’s bride as a symbol of his life, not just a symbol of his death.

Goblin’s appreciation of life is perhaps why the sword becomes concrete and real, as I argued in my post about why Eun Tak cannot remove the sword. He hugs her in his arms and tells her he can’t do that, not the 50% discount. Just as he’s going to tell her that he wants her to stay in their household, he feels the sharp pain in his body  and the sword appears in concrete form. Eun Tak can finally place her hands on it and attempts to pull it out, but that’s where he makes his most concrete and dramatic choice to live, by pushing her away so powerfully and with so much force that his eventual shielding of her causes a huge collision on the road and much fireworks. He holds her tightly in his arms and protects her from any harm, symbolising his embracing of the joy and ‘shine’ that she has brought to his life.

While Goblin has learnt to appreciate his life amidst all the pain of his past, Reaper is experiencing the opposite journey as the pain of his past is returning as he sees the scroll of the queen. It brings tears to his eyes and we see a past encounter between the young king and the queen. Being so used to just carrying out his duties, Reaper has lost an identity and a sense of who he is, which is symbolised in this episode by his lack of a name card. A name card conveys not just your name, it also symbolises your identity and position in this world. Reaper’s lack of a name card represents his rootlessness, which is bound to change now that he’s gained greater insight into his past. He is also gradually being “rooted” to the world through his growing relationship with Goblin (as shown through a hilarious exchange between him and Goblin on his Eun Tak has spoiled their room-mate bond) and now with Sunny.

On that note, how cute was that scene between him and Sunny. While he struggles with communicating with her, it’s the simplest, most honest things he says that can be the most touching. I loved it when he replied to her question of what he liked doing by saying “Sunny”, then spoke about how he loved her unpredictability and how it’s better than any drama, finally referring to her as his new hobby. It’s so sweet, honest and real and Lee Dong Wook really aces his interactions with Sunny, being so bumbling yet charming. I found it interesting how he referred to his love for her as either a plan of the gods or their mistake – I’m sure we’ll find out more about this in time to come.

There’s so much richness in this show that I look forward to each episode not really because of the plot developments, but really because of the joy, beauty and meaning that can be drawn out of just watching these characters interact and journeying in life.