Review and Recaps: Jirisan episode 12 (also known as ‘Cliffhanger’ or ‘Mountain Jiri’)

The episode starts with the year 2019. Yi-gang and Kim Sol sit near the Gwigan rock. Yi-gang feels the air to be heavy.

Dae-Jin also senses something in the mountain then he radios Il-hae who is leading the National park development and Ecology team to the Bidam shelter. They are midway in a river. Dae-Jin asks him to look at Yangseokbong peak and asks him if anything is fishy. Il-hae looks at the peak in his binocular and reports that clouds are on the ridge then suddenly water starts pouring in their direction. Il-hae warns everyone to move immediately and vacate them to the shelter.

The daily prediction of rain goes up to 96mm in the station. Everyone gets alerted as the alarm goes off all over the mountain. All the officers start taking action and the villagers are warned about the residential rainfall.

Yi-gang goes to pick her things up but on her way in the car rocks fall and the road gets blocked. She immediately takes reverse and warns the cars which are leading the way.

The illegal hikers are isolated in the mountains and part of the road got blocked so it makes things difficult. Rangers set emergency office near Munjin Valley.

As soon as the rangers reach the office, Dae-jin explains that there are five people in the Baembawi rock, 3 people in the stone chamber, a family of 5 in Apricot tree valley. Another officer explains that because of the avalanche, a bus and 12 people were trapped with the driver.

At this point, Il-hae radios Dae-jin and says they made it to the shelter but there was an avalanche at Munjin valley fox hill and Mr Yang and chief fell behind. He says it is impossible to rescue from the mountain as the road is totally damaged.

Dae-Jin orders the team to split for the rescue mission. Hyun-Jo and Yi-gang go to rescue Mr Yang and the chief. On their way, Yi-gang asks Hyun-Jo to be careful as the murderer is after him. Hyun-Jo then carefully says that all the victims are somehow connected to the 1995 flood. His ex-colleague was the son of one of the victims of the flood.

Yi-gang freezes for some time after hearing what he said and then says flood is natural casualties and nobody knew the aftermath of it. It was an accident and it can’t be a reason for someone to murder people. She says it is just a coincidence that the victims are related to the flood.

The lottery girl goes near a fallen tree to see what she has. And to all of our surprise, she finds the lottery ticket she is been searching for for ages. She screams in excitement and then suddenly realises a man is standing not far from her. The man asks if she is ok and smirks at her. (Well that was creepy because they didn’t show what happened to them afterwards)

Mr Yang has injured his stomach. The Chief supports Mr Yang and they both moves from fox hill. Mr Yang says how cable cars would have helped them. The chief asks how he can talk about it in this kind of situation. And says lots of trees would have been cut off and trees are the only thing helping them right now else the soil would have killed them long back. The chef reminds him of the Black bridge valley and asks him why he did that if he cares so much about his hometown. It was the chief who was Dae-jin’s partner when Black bridge valley village got demolished. Mr Yang protests that he didn’t put the dead animal into the well back then.

The Cheif sees how injured Mr Yang is and runs to the emergency repeater which temporarily amplifies the terminal signal. Another illegal hiker(the same man who was with the lottery girl before) reaches the repeater and right when they make calls to the station, Hyun-Jo and Yi-gang arrive.

The illegal hiker is also injured his leg so they request a backup. Hyun-Jo carries Mr Yang and the chief follows him. Yi-gang and the hiker wait for the backup. Hyun-jo sees that the hiker is wearing black gloves and warns Yi-gang to be careful before leaving.

Gu-Yeong and his team rescue five people from the Beombawi rock and go to Yi-gang as a backup. On their way, they hear the lottery girl’s voice and see her on a cliff. Gu-Yeong reports Dae-Jin that they don’t have the proper gear to rescue her and asks for backup. Dae-Jin says they will send a backup and asks the team to move forward. Gu-Yeong tells the girl that a team is coming to rescue her in a couple of hours and asks her to be patient before leaving.

Yang-sun tells Dae-Jin that the other team are still in the rescue and there is no one to send as a backup. Dae-Jin asks Yang-sun if she can handle everything down there and decides to go up himself. Yang-sun says she will go as she got better by all the training of Gu-Yeong. Dae-jin mulls it up.

Yi-gang and the hiker wait in a cave and Yi-gang perform first aid to the hiker. The hiker says that they should be leaving. Yi-gang asks him to calm down and says because of the weather there is a high chance of avalanche and tells him that they should be waiting for the rescue. But the hiker is not calming down and says that’s what they said back in the 1995 flood and the people who were waiting died. Yi-gang gets shocked and we are shown that he is one of the college students who left the shelter while leaving Yi-gang parents and others back. The hiker runs away while saying they should go down. Yi-gang gathers herself and tries to block his way but the man accidentally hits Yi-gang while pushing her away. Yi-gang falls down and becomes unconscious.

Now we are shown a glimpse of what happened in 1995. Yi-gang’s father stood for someone’s surety and got scammed. After the flood, a man from the insurance company says that Yi-gang parents had insurance but they won’t be able to claim it if they were committed suicide and they should wait for the police to confirm it. Yi-gang stands up and says her parents wouldn’t have done that and cries.

Back to the present. Gu-Yeong meets Hyun-Jo on their way and his team takes the chief and Mr Yang down the mountain. Hyun-Jo radios Yi-gang but as she doesn’t reply he gets worried. Gu-Yeong asks him to get down but he decides to hike back to Yi-gang.

In the cave, Yi-gang wakes up next to the hiker. Hiker asks if she is ok and says she was right as there was a mud fall and he would have died if he tried to go down. He is calmer now. He confesses how he came to the mountain to die as his business went bankrupt and his family got scattered. He says he went to pagoda ground in Baektogol, the place he went on the day of the flood back in 1995 and says it was his first time in Mount Jiri. He says he met a man and we are flashed back to the day.

That day in the pagoda ground he and his friends meet Yi-gang’s parents and ask them to take photos of them. After that, Yi-gang’s mother lovingly offers food for the students. The students get excited and eat with them while having small talks. The hiker notices Yi-gang’s father looking at the stone stacks. The hiker asks him if it is true that this place grant wishes. Yi-gang’s father asks if he knows when people started keeping stones in the stack. The hiker says no and Yi-gang’s father says he also doesn’t know. Both chuckles. Yi-gang’s father says that every time a flood occurs all the stones wash away but the stones stack back like magic. He says if this place is that famous then it could be true. The hiker asks what he wished for to which Yi-gang’s father replies that he wished to be a good father and says he got scammed and says that he can stand again as long as he has his family.

Flashback ends and in the cave, the hiker says he remembered the man’s words “I can stand again as long as I have my family” and that made him realise that he wanted to live.

At this point, Hyun-Jo, Gu-Yeong and the team reach the cave and take the hiker down. Hyun-jo sees lost Yi-gang in the cave and asks if she is ok. Yi-gang says that no one knew why her parents went to the mountain on that day as her father got scammed and her grandma was upset with him.

A glimpse of the past is shown where Yi-gang’s father gives her flowers saying it is the flower of happiness. Yi-gang throws them on the ground and says she likes the mountain but doesn’t want to live there forever. She says she wants to go to Seoul. Her father explains that there is no one in Seoul and they are not going back. Yi-gang gets angry and says she hates everyone including him and leaves. This fight is her last memory of his father it seems.

Another glimpse of the day of the flood on the shelter. Yi-gang parents don’t write anything in the log because they were confident to survive the day. They were planning to say it all face to face. (This was emotional)

Back in the cave, Yi-gang says she didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to think they decided to leave her back and maybe it was because of what she said. But she couldn’t forget anything till the day. She then cries her heart out saying she misses them a lot.

The hiker tells Gu-Yeong that there was a girl in the mountain. Now we are shown what happened when this man and the lottery girl met. When the man found the girl, she panics as if he was there for her ticket and runs away without her backpack. The man runs to her to give her the backpack but ends up injuring his leg.

All the hikers get down and successfully this time they save everyone without any casualties. Dae-Jin informs the chief that Mr Yang is admitted to the hospital and says he is in good condition now. The chief jokingly says maybe he should have left Mr Yang behind.

Yi-gang’s grandma and her fellow elders come with food to feed the rangers. Yi-gang thanks her grandma while getting down from the mountain which makes grandma smile.

Hyun-Jo goes to the hiker and asks him about the day in the shelter back in 1995. He asks if he remembers something about that day and asks if they were fighting. The hiker says he doesn’t as it was long back and confirms that they were not fighting.

Gu-Yeong searches for Yang-sun and learns she has gone to her first rescue. In the mountain, Yang-sun finds the lottery girl and ropes her to the cliff to rescue her. Everyone along with Dae-Jin smile as Yang-sun reports she will be back with the girl.

Suddenly a mysterious man is shown and all the hikers hear only the screaming of the girls which makes everyone go in shock. The episode ends here.

Why do they have to leave us in this kind of cliffhanger?

At this point, I wanna know who the murderer is and that is all in my mind!..

Truth to be told I am kind of afraid that I would be disappointed! The series is great so far so my expectations are kind of high! What are your thoughts guys!?