The episode starts with Yi-gang suspiciously looking at the Captain’s desk. She then decides to look into the daily logs of the station.
On the other side, Da-Won goes to investigate the mark she planted. She takes a chip from the camera she placed near the mark and notices that the mark has changed so she takes pictures of it and suddenly the sky goes dark and the birds start circling in the sky as the hooded Hyun-Jo comes. Sacred Da-Won tries to escape from the place. While doing so, she runs right through hooded Hyun-Jo. This causes the condition of Hyun-Jo in the hospital to go unstable. (I am damn confused. Is the hooded Hyun-Jo his spirit? If so, why he is trapped in the mountain?)
In the station, Yi-gang goes to a room and looks for Captain’s logs on the day when Yan Geun-Tak went missing and it is logged as ‘Day off’. She then checks the log of him on the day of other accidents in the Mountain Jiri and it all says ‘Day off’ (Okay now, this is creepy!). Someone tries to barge into the room and Yi-gang gets intimidated. She then slowly goes to the door with a hiker stick. She is scared (and I am too!!). Once she is close to the door, someone enters a password and comes running into the room. Yi-gang and the entered person screams at the same time. To our surprise, the entered person is Da-Won.
Da-Won apologises for the scream and tells her that she needs to see something. Yi-gang asks if she saw someone on her way and she says no. Da-Won then shows the changed mark and plays the video on the chip. To our surprise, it appears as if the Mark changed itself, the camera couldn’t capture hooded Hyun-Jo. Da-Won is scared and tells her about how it went dark in the mountain earlier. But Yi-gang is fully concentrated on the mark and finds where the mark is indicating. She says “Dowon Valley, Sumgol stone, someone is going to die there” and runs to the control room and reports that someone in Dowan Valley, Sumgol stone is in serious condition. She reports as if that person called. Da-Won says it is a false report and asks if it is okay.
Rangers run to the spot and find the victim and carry him to the hospital. Yi-gang goes to the hospital and asks Eung Soon about the patient. Eung Soon says he drank a yoghurt and got food poisoning and he is ok now after the treatment. Yi-gang asks ‘Yoghurt?’ And we are flashed back to a glimpse of the past.
In the past, after the grandma died in the mountain and after the Ahn incident, Hyun-Jo is suspicious of the yoghurt and the poisonous mushrooms. He tells Yi-gang that maybe grandma died after drinking the yoghurt and he mentions that Ahn said that he saw the man (who gave Ahn the yoghurt) closing the grandma’s backpack. He says maybe that man put the poisonous mushroom in the bag to make everyone believe that it was an accident. Yi-gang is not quite convinced and says it is all his assumptions and says the grandma’s family is already suffering and they can burden them while they don’t even have any evidence.
In the present, Yi-gang goes to see the patient. He thanks her for rescuing him. She then asks about the yoghurt. He says he saw that yoghurt riverside and also says that he saw a male ghost in the mountain. He describes that the ghost was wearing a white hoodie that had the rangers logo and the white hoodie was covered with blood. Yi-gang shows a picture of her and Hyun-Jo in the uniform for snow and asks if it is that hoodie. The man frightens and says he was the ghost he saw and asks if he was a ranger.
Yi-gang comes out and thinks about it. The man who said about ghosts earlier comes and Yi-gang asks if the ghosts really exist. He says the people who hike Mount Jiri mostly have 1 or 2 stories and only some hikes for fun. They carry sorrow and regret to the mountain and that is what ghost is. If a person dies with a strong desire then that person may become a ghost.
The year 2018. It is a nice day. In the rangers office, Gu-Yeong is registering for the Mud Festival. Yi-gang and Hyung-Jo sneak into what he is doing. Yi-gang says girls don’t like this festival and that is why Lee Yang-Sun (it must be the girl from the town hall whom Gu-Yeong couldn’t take his eyes off) doesn’t like him. Hyun-Jo asks if Lee Yang-Sun and Gu-Yeong are dating. Yi-gang says it is one-sided and Gu-Yeong defends that nowadays Yang-Sun is looking at him differently. Hyun-Jo says girls don’t like this festival as their make up washes away and they have to redo it. Yi-gang is surprised that Hyun-Jo knows that much and asks if he has gone there with the girls. Hyun-Jo says yes. Yi-gang is surprised to know it.
Then Yi-gang and Gu-Yeong go to the Research centre and Yi-gang says they research Moon bears, elks, raccoons, pythons. There they meet Yoon Su Jin – a researcher.
Yoon Su Jin says she is doing an ecological study on endangered species. She is currently researching Korean rat snakes. She injected a microchip on 10 of the kind. But the 4th one is currently missing. She says she lost the signal near Bamgol and couldn’t find the signal anywhere near Bamgol. She says it with puppy eyes. She seems to love animals. Yi-gang says she should have known the fact that they should look elsewhere but the mountain.
Yi-gang and Hyun-Jo go to a restaurant which Yi-gang is suspicious of. The owner asks if they are married and asks if they are planning to have a baby and suggests that they should have a snakehead. Yi-gang plays along and says they want to have virility😂 and asks if they have anything which works and asks if they have a snake and she even winks at him.
Both of them then goes to their car in which Su Jin is waiting with an antenna. Su Jin asks if Yi-gang is right as they didn’t detect any signal yet. Yi-gang says if the snake disappeared around Bamgol, then she has a hunch that the restaurant owners are behind it. And says they will make a move soon.
While waiting, Hyun-Jo asks Su Jin that if someone can extract the poison from the poisonous mushroom. Yi-gang says that he is guessing that maybe someone in the mountain is using the poison to kill the hikers. Su Jin says that is awful and says it is not completely impossible. One who knows the extraction technique, trophology can only do it which can only be the rangers and asks why would any ranger kill people.
By now, the owners (husband and wife from the restaurant) makes their move. Su Jin clumsily starts the car and they follow them. The owners go to some kind of warehouse. Hyun-Jo, in the back seat, is holding the antenna now. He receives the signal and again losses it. The trio waits there for a long time and wonders where should call the police or should barge in. While they are talking, Yi-gang suddenly stands roaring and runs toward the warehouse and opens the door. The other two follow her. Three of them are shocked to see so many snakes in there.
The police arrive and investigate. While Yi-gang and the owner fight. The owner says they are doing this job for generations and asks if she owns the mountain. Yi-gang asks if he is proud and goes all out fighting that Hyun-Jo is holding her back while the police are holding the owner back. After some time, Su Jin reports that there are 23 back, 18 yellow rat snakes and 53 tiger keel backs. Totally 94 snakes were rescued. Eung Soon thanks them. Yi-gang and Hyun-Jo decide to leave and we are shown a mysterious man with a black jacket and gloves. He removes his gloves and we can see that he has a scar on his right hand (I feel like it is a scar that came from someone scratching him)
In the night, Hyun-Jo gets another vision where the man with the scar in his hand is placing something like a rock on top of a graveyard, then there is lots of fresh blood in the bushes near.
The next day, Hyun-Jo and Yi-gang go to a restricted area where even illegal hikers don’t go and Yi-gang says it is an animal paradise. She also says that it is the only place where there is a graveyard from which they can see the cheonwangbong peak (The place from the Hyun-Jo’s vision). Hyun-Jo sees the graveyard and notices that there is no stone there. Hyung-Jo asks Yi-gang why she came up without any complaints as she always complains whenever he talks about his vision. He also says that why Demon Seo is not yelling at him😂. Yi-gang gets furious and asks if he wants to die. Hyun-Jo then puts his humour off and the duo heads down.
As soon as the duo leaves, the owners who got caught last night comes out from hiding. The man scolds them and asks his wife to set the trap for snakes as they can’t starve their children. As the man sets a trap near the graveyard, he goes somewhere else to place a trap. The mysterious man with the scar comes and places that stone just like in Hyun-Jo’s vision. When the owner returns he sees the stone and touches it.
On the way down, Hyun-Jo asks Yi-gang if it is not illegal to have a graveyard in the mountains. Yi-gang says the family set the graveyard before jirisan became a national park. Now the family doesn’t want to move the graveyard elsewhere so it remains there just like this one.
The owner in the mountain tosses the stone and suddenly the duo hears an explosion sound. Yi-gang reports to the other rangers and both runs back to the graveyard. Hyun-Jo reaches first and sees the dead owner and asks Yi-gang to not come there. The dead’s wife screams and cries for her husband.
In the rangers station, Researcher Su Jin explains that it was a potato bomb that was used by the poachers to hunt moon bears in the 60s and 70s. The moon bear’s liver and gall bladder are valuables so the poachers used to place them like a landmine all over the mountain. Gu-Yeong asks how it blew up after these many years. Su Jin says the bomb has cast of wax so no wind or water can go inside. At this point, Hyun-Jo comes forward and says they were patrolling in the area before the accident and they saw nothing in the patrol. The Captain asks if they are sure and concludes that it was the ranger’s mistake as they couldn’t find the explosive.
While they are talking, The owner’s wife comes with her family and with her husband’s corpse. She cries and accuses the rangers of her husband’s death and asks them to pay for his death.
The news goes out of control. In the headquarters, in a meeting, the chief of the national park agrees to take responsibility and resign. All the other rangers are waiting outside. The team leader scolds Yi-gang for being careless. Gu-Yeong protests her says how can she remove something she saw for the first time. The leader also mentions the grandma’s incident and asks Gu-Yeong to be the leader if he knows so well.
As soon as the captain comes out he says about the chief and leaves. Yi-gang follows him and says there was no bomb in the mountain and someone planted it in the mountain after their patrol. She says they need to find that person to clear the misunderstanding. Captain says it is the police job and their job is to regain the hiker’s trust and asks her to do her job.
The chief apologises to the family and resigns and the family decides to bury the dead.
Hyun-Jo is determined to find that person and tells Yi-gang that he saw a hand that had 5 scratch scars from a paw of a small animal. Yi-gang asks him to not make things worse but Hyun-Jo is nowhere near listening.
Rangers and the police place awareness banners about the potato bomb in the mountain.
Rangers conduct an awareness session for which the villagers are invited. Hyun-Jo takes sick leave that day. Gu-Yeong and the leader gets suspicious as he left the residence early in the morning. Yi-gang covers up for him saying he went to the big hospital. Now they both get concerned and ask if he is seriously ill. Not knowing what to tell, Yi-gang says ‘his head’ and doesn’t answer further questions. To divert the conversation, she says drinks are short so they should buy more. Gu-Yeong joins Yang-sun to get the drinks. The leader asks why everyone is awkward today.
Hyun-Jo goes to meet Su Jin and asks about the bomb. Hyun-Jo asks if someone can build the bomb. She says the ingredients don’t exist anymore so that is not possible. She says they were dismantled and burned after removing from the mountain. She also says some workers who removed the bombs kept some to themselves but they were also found and disposed of. Hyun-Jo asks for the worker’s list but Su Jin, unfortunately, doesn’t have one so she introduces him to a worker who may know others.
Hyun-Jo goes around and investigates all the workers. One of the workers hesitates when Hyun-Jo mentions the potato bomb. The worker ends up revealing that he lost the potato bomb from his storage. He seems to be the grandfather of Yang-Sun. He asks Hyun-Jo to keep this as secret as it can affect Yan-Sun as a ranger. Hyun-Jo looks at their family photo and gets suspicious of a man in the picture.
On the other side, Gu-Yeong and Yang-Sun walk their way back with the drinks they bought. Gu-Yeong sees her stressed and asks her out for a festival. But Yang-sun is lost in thoughts of seeing something like a potato bomb in the hands of someone in their storage. She then excuses herself and runs to the mountain. Gu-Yeong is frustrated that Yang-Sun turned her down and makes his way back alone.
At the awareness session, all the villagers including the victim family of the potato bomb incident arrive. Yi-gang and the leader distribute pamphlets. By coincidence, Yi-gang sees a hand of a man with the scar Hyun-Jo mentioned earlier. She then suspiciously looks at the man and the young man turns around to smile at her (which was really creepy) and the episode ends here.
Why there are more than one psychopaths who want to kill innocent people in the mountain? Or it is the same person behind the potato bomb and the Yoghurt? What the Captain has to do with all of this? Let’s see if our questions have been answered in the upcoming episodes.
BTW, I heard that the OST by BTS Jin is going to be released in the 5th episode and I can’t wait to listen to it. They are planning to make it as the title track. 😍😍
To read reviews and recaps of all the episodes click here!
this episode the man uses the potato bomb to take over.
Yeah.. They are really good at confusing!
Didn’t the captain commit those murders then?
I don’t know. Maybe they tries to confuse us with the captain!!
yeah, you are right
You are right there are a lot of psycho people roaming, the jungle and they are taking the lives of innocent people.
Exactly! Maybe they have done something illegal like the owner but they don’t deserve to die!/
i am also agree that
😊🙌