Arang and the Magistrate

Memory

Chez Choi, Joo-wal's still stunned at recent events, namely losing his corpse at a crucial moment. His father's voice cuts in to rub his nose in his failure; at least now we understand why these two men always seem to be sniping at each other.

Lord Choi says that the "wife" must be hungry since she didn't get her soul — so he does know the whole story. He chuckles that she must be mighty angry, since now she'll have to wait till the next leap month. (Fyi, a leap month occurs every three to four years; it's an extra month inserted to offset the difference between the lunar and solar calendars.)

Even MORE interestingly, Dad offers up a bit of wisdom "as your sunbae who traveled this road before you." OH OH OH. Has Mom been around for generations, then? What about her family's "memorial" day — is it actually from a different lifetime? Is Eun-oh even her son? Now I have visions of Mom luring in scores of men and piling their decrepit bodies in a creepy warehouse somewhere, The Hunger-style.

Dad asks, "Do you know what the wife does when the hunter fails to bring in prey? It's simple. She changes hunters." Lord Choi laughs that Joo-wal probably thinks he's different from old dad, but he'll see soon enough. And then, Lord Choi is hit with a sudden, painful headache. Hm.

Joo-wal makes his way to the isolated cottage and kneels before the front door. Inside, behind her red veil, sits Worst Mom of the Year (also possibly ever).

Back to Eun-oh, who finds Mom's hairpin in the serial killer hut on Abandoned Mountain and wonders why it's here. Dol-swe alerts him to a strange discovery outside: a large trapdoor sits in the ground, fading into the earth around it. They get to work uncovering the door.

Up in heaven, Jade Emperor's back at his gayageum. Hades is feeling smug, telling Jadey he seems to have lost his touch; he's sure those humans will fail and therefore urges Jade Emperor to take good care of that body. He offers to rest up his own, in preparation for the switch. Aw. As much as I would love to see the confident Jade Emperor lose a bet for once, I'm pretty sure Hades would be insufferable were his personality to be paired with those hottie looks. Though it's always possible he'd age Jade's body too, and then they'd look like real twins. And that's we'd call a Pyrrhic victory.

Back on earth, the men struggle to lift the trapdoor, not seeing the talismans laid across the entrance keeping it sealed. Eun-oh just about gives himself a hernia but manages to lift the wood, talisman be damned, and sends it crashing open.

It causes a supernatural disturbance, which is felt by Mom. As well as Jade, who decides he'll have to call in Mu-young. Why, is somebody dying?

With the covering removed, the men look down into the hole below. Dol-swe calls it a well, but Eun-oh spots something strange at the dry bottom. Are those... bones?

Eun-oh leaps into the hole and begins frantically digging through the rocks. Eep! I know you're worried it's Mom, but gahhh. He pulls out what looks like a bony hand, and that spurs him to dig even more madly... until he uncovers a skull. Shivers.

And then another. Double shivers.

Eun-oh tells himself it can't be his mother, and tamps down his fear to keep digging. Up comes a woman's shoe, a bracelet, a ribcage.

Mom bursts out of her house and tells Joo-wal, who's still dutifully kneeling at her front stoop, to go to "that place" immediately. It's a race to get there first, because Dol-swe speeds to the village to call in police officers to the crime scene.

Joo-wal arrives to find a crew of men excavating the pit, led by Eun-oh. Jumping to the conclusion that Eun-oh must know more than he actually does, Joo-wal wonders if he also stole Arang's corpse. "How did he know?!" The sheer volume of bones unearthed is enough to skeeve everyone out.