Review and Recaps: Jirisan episode 14 (also known as ‘Cliffhanger’ or ‘Mountain Jiri’)

The episode starts with Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae realise that someone made a wrong report so that Yi-gang is left alone.

In the Black bridge village, Yi-gang hears some footsteps and gets scared. She prepares herself but in the hustle falls. Hooded Hyun-Jo finds her and calmly asks if she can see him. Yi-gang is shocked to see him and remembers how everyone mentioned hooded Hyun-jo in the mountains. It was like she couldn’t believe what she is seeing. Hooded Hyun-Jo asks if she is ok and asks if it hurt so much back then and asks if it still hurts. Yi-gang tries to touch his hand in disbelief but her hand passes through his. She then asks him why he is so lonely and why he is trapped in the mountains. She asks what happened last summer after he started working at the Bidam shelter. (Finally the question we were all anticipating to know the answer for!)

Now we are flashing back to the year 2019.

Hyun-Jo gets a clue from his vision that the attack happens at 3 pm. (He sees a phone in his vision in which he notices the time). He then reaches the Black Bridge village at 2.45 pm thinking that the killer will be there in 15 minutes.

He then notices someone in the woods and follows the person. He successfully catches the person and realises it is Kim Sol. He then asks him if he is the killer and asks why he is killing people in the mountain. Confused Kim Sol says he does not understand what he is saying and says he is there to meet officer Eung Soon as he texted him to meet there and shows him Eung Soon’s text message. Hyun-Jo notices that it is the same phone from his vision and asks if it is his phone. (But why did Kim Sol run?) He says yes and says they both are from the Black Bridge village.

We are shown a glimpse of what happened after Mr Yang was kicked out of the village for talking about cable cars. The mayor asks the villagers if they are ok with his decision and the villagers agree with him though some of them are half-hearted as they could get a good amount of money. The kids from the school arrive in the village and Eung Soon is one of them. Eung Soon seems to be the eldest and seems to take good care of his fellow kids.

In 2019, Hyun-Jo and Sol then go to Sol’s house and Sol shows pictures from his childhood. There is Yang-Sun, See-Wook, Kim Sol, Hyun-Jo’s junior and Eung Soon. He says they were good friends and Eung Soon used to take care of everyone. After the village was demolished he and Yang-Sun, Hyun-Jo’s junior went away from Mount Jiri but See-Wook and Eung Soon stayed. See-wook lost his parents in an accident not long after Sol lost his mother so Eung Soon took care of See-wook since then. He says they were pretty close.

Sol then asks to tell his story and asks him why he said he killed people in the mountain. Hyun-Jo says there is someone who is killing people in the mountain and says he is suspecting that it is related to Black Bridge village. He then asks if he remembers anything from the village and asks why he said it was all because of ghost lights. Sol says he doesn’t really remember much as he was young. He says he saw ghost lights before all the tragedy that happened. He says his mom died and the See-Wook parents died in an accident and his father committed suicide. He then says as he was just a kid no one told him much in detail.

The next day, Hyun-Jo goes to meet Eung Soon in the police station and gives the log as requested. Eung Soon thanks him and asks why he didn’t go to the mountain after asking Sol to go there. Eung Soon says he didn’t do as something came up. Hyun-Jo tries to feel him out. Eung Soon looks at him and asks if he wants something else. (It was kind of rude for Eung Soon. I felt like it was completely a different person talking as Eung Soon is always sweet to everyone). While leaving Hyun-Jo notices Eung Soon’s muddy boots and asks if he hikes mountains nowadays. Eung Soon says he doesn’t as he is busy these days.

After Hyun-Jo leaves, Eung Soon opens a file where everyone’s name who moved from the Black Bridge village is listed.

Hyun-Jo notices how Eung Soon can hike the mountain better than rangers and thinks that he is a person who knows well about the people from the village and when they go to the mountain. He thinks Eung Soon is a prime suspect.

He also learns that Eung Soon closed the bus accident case as an accident and wonders why did he ask for the rangers daily log on that day.

Hyun-Jo then goes to meet Geum-rye as she never called. Her neighbour tells him that she was supposed to go to the mountain but now is in hospital and says her health is pretty bad and is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Hyun-Jo goes to meet her son. But no luck with him a he is not at all interested in talking about the village. He then goes to Kim Sol and asks him to inform him if Eung Soon contacts him. Sol says he doesn’t believe that Eung Soon is killing people. Hyun-Jo says he is also not sure yet but he needs to be careful.

Hyun-Jo avoids Yi-gang as he only remembers how her grandmother died because of him and how Yi-gang accused him. Yi-gang is also in no mood to reconcile with him.

Hyun-Jo and his partner meet up with his fellow rangers from another station and they have a small talk. Hyun-Jo learns from them that the military dog tag he is been searching for was last seen at the cave at Black Bridge village. They say they were a lot of other things like snake traps, a hiking pole. He also says that the other ranger team cleaned up the lost articles.

Hyun-Jo investigates the articles but all the rangers team thought the other one took care of it but actually, no rangers did. Hyun-Jo confirms that it must be the murderer. He thinks that the murderer would have kept it in the mountain as it is the best place to hide the articles.

He then goes to Kim Sol and asks him if he knows any place where it could be hidden. Sol says he is not sure about it. (I mean why he is teaming up with Sol? He could be the culprit as well. He was there when Hyun-Jo went to the cave after the bear attack and Sol was the one who told Hyun-Jo that the lost articles were taken care of by the Rangers)

Hyun-Jo then searches the mountain thinking that we will have evidence once he has his hands on the lost articles.

One night, he gets a message from Yi-gang. Yi-gang asks him to meet her up the next day as it is his day off.

The next day, a snowfall of 10cm is predicted in mount Jiri. When Hyun-Jo leaves the shelter he again gets visions of someone who is hurt, a lot of blood all over the snow (i feel like it was Yi-gang in his vision so he foresaw Yi-gang’s accident as well?).

In the year 2020, Hyun-Jo ends the flashback by saying Eung Soon is the culprit. But Yi-gang says Eung Soon would have never done it. Hyun-Jo says he again saw some visions and he saw the culprit’s watch as well. He says it is 5.30 in the evening and it happens at the Seokyi cliff in Dowon valley. They both decide to catch the culprit this time for sure.

Yi-gang, Il-Hae, Gu-Yeong go down to the station. Yi-gang explains how all the victims are related to the Black Bridge village. She also asks them to install a video camera at Seokyi cliff. They both ask her why and she says it is very hard to believe and asks them to trust her this one last time. She also asks them to keep it secret from Eung Soon. Il-Hae and Gu-Yeong say it can’t be him. Yi-gang says he is also from the Black Bridge village and knows the people from villagers well.

Eung Soon’s partner notices that Eung Soon keeps a daily log of the villagers and asks him if he is a stalker. Eung Soon says they should be careful all the time and leave for a patrol. He meets the illegal hiker who saw hooded Hyun-Jo in the mountain. Eung Soon asks him if he still gets the herb illegally from the mountain. The hiker denies it. Eung Soon says he needs some Jangsaeng bellflower root as it is the season for it. The hiker says he doesn’t go but will ask his fellow hikers to get it for him. (Obviously, the hiker is going to get it to earn some money).

The next day, as expected, the hiker hikes the mountain for the root. The killer is wearing a watch that Hyun-Jo saw in his vision and black gloves follows him. It is around 12 noon and at the same time Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae go to keep the video camera before 5.30.

Hodded Hyun-Jo waits in the Seokyi cliff for the killer. He suddenly again foresees the killer killing the victim at 2 in a different place. He then realises the killer changed the plan and goes to the location he foresaw. Gu-Yeong radios Yi-gang that it will take 2 hours for them to reach Seokyi cliff.

In the station, Yi-gang watches the clip of her talking to hooded Hyun-Jo the previous day. To her surprise, she sees someone eavesdropping on them behind the woods. She realises that the killer heard them talking.

In the mountain, the killer pushes the hiker down a cliff just as Hyun-Jo saw in his visions. The hiker seemed to know the killer. He asks the killer why he is there before the killer pushes him down.

Suddenly, Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae hers someone’s scream in a different location and run toward it but they are too late so as hooded Hyun-Jo. Hyun-Jo sees the dead hiker and remembers the hiker saying everyone who sees Hyun-Jo dies and Hyun-Jo realises that it is true. He runs to the mountain where Da-won’s radio is and tries to puck it up. He gets frustrated as he can’t touch it and starts hitting it. Hyun-Jo’s condition in the hospital goes unstable. Hooded Hyun-Jo is finally able to pick the radio up and radios Yi-gang. He asks her to leave and have a happy life and asks her to forget whatever happened in the mountain. Only Yi-gang can hear him and others only hear a distorted noise. Yi-gang screams his name.

We can see that Hyun-Jo in the hospital is crying. Yi-gang calls him on the radio and hooded Hyun-Jo tries to talk further but then disappear suddenly like a puff. Hyun-Jo in the hospital dies. The episode ends here.

Please tell me this is not happening 😭. Please tell me Hyun-Jo will come back alive. Please tell me I just didn’t see Hyun-Jo die😭😭. Why???? I mean why??? I really can’t take it!!!

Why did they never show the killer’s face? I still suspect Kim Sol. As I mentioned before, it was like Eung Soon was a completely different person. They suddenly made a nice guy seem like a killer and made another nice guy die! I am not feeling good about this episode. They said mountains give comfort but for Yi-gang, she saw all her loved ones die in the mountain or because of the mountain and she lost her legs and can’t even hike on her own anymore.

If Hyun-Jo is really dead, I am sure I won’t like the ending. Even if Yi-gang is strong enough to move on, I won’t be able to.

What do you guys think?

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