The episode starts with the year 1991. In the Black Bridge Village, other villagers go straight to the Mayor and ask him to sign the cable car form (Idk the logic of the villagers. They couldn’t say no to the Mayor but can hurt their own land and people). The Mayor is so hurt and he chases them away.
Sol asks the Mayor why can’t they just go like the others. Mayor asks him who asked him to say so and says only his father is right and the others are wrong.
As soon as they go to the shelter where their honey hives are, Sol notices the silence and asks his father why it is so silent and where are the bees. The mayor notices the dead bees and goes mad. He checks all the hives but all the bees are dead. He starts screaming to the bees and goes into a delusion where he feels like the bees are back to life. He starts building more hives for the bees while Sol tries to calm him down. Sol cries when his father doesn’t respond to him and go search for the cable car form. Sol then signs the form and runs down the mountain to give it to other villagers.
As he reaches outside the door he hears one of the villagers talking about how the others think that spraying pesticide on the honey hives was too much. He also says Eung Soon’s father is so depressed about the hit and run case that maybe he will turn himself in. He also says that what happened to Sol’s mother was just an accident and asks nobody to talk about it. (He confessed everything. Damn!)
The villager then senses someone outside and goes out to see Sol and asks if he heard something. Sol is so scared and says he didn’t hear anything. The villager takes the form from Sol’s hand and says “good job”. Then Sol runs back to the mountain.
In the end, depressed Mayor suicides leaving poor Sol alone in this world.
The government doesn’t approve cable car business which leaves the villagers frustrated. They anyway leave the village to survive.
It is 2021. Yi-gang says “it is you” to Sol. Sol smiles sarcastically and says even he was the murderer she doesn’t have any proof and asks her to tell the police as they won’t believe it. He asks if she thought that he would get anxious and do something he shouldn’t. He says this is not the mountain and he won’t do anything. He then sends Yi-gang off.
Gu-Yeong, Il-Hae and Yi-gang expect Sol to go to the mountain to destroy evidence and their actual plan was to place a GPS detector in Sol’s backpack in which Yi-gang succeeded.
As expected Sol goes to the mountain and Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae follow him while Yi-gang supports them from the station. All the 3 know that it is their last chance.
In the mountain, Hyun-Jo looks at Eung Soon and realises Sol is the murderer. He then searches the place thinking where would Sol keep his evidence given the fact that he knows the mountains and the hideouts well.
On the other side, Dae-Jin gets released from the detention centre as there is no solid evidence against him. Police ask him not to travel and to keep his phone always on as he is still a suspect. His daughter comes to visit with breakfast and asks him why he is still working in the mountain. She says he has dedicated everything to the mountain but it is not fair to become a suspect like this. She asks him to go home with her right away. Dae-Jin says he has to go to the mountain for the last time and promises that he will come home.
In the mountain, Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae follow Sol’s location which eventually leads to Beori forest, the foggy area. Sol seems to have noticed that he is being followed. He dumps the GPS in the forest and leaves. The trio gets frustrated as there is no way they reach the evidence before Sol now.
Before they completely lose hope, Dae-Jin arrives at the station and learns the situation. He then radios to all the rangers that there is an SOS report in the bedrock northwest or south of Byeoru forest (which is more likely to be the hideout Sol kept his evidence given that he was near the foggy forest) and the victim is ranger Sol. All the rangers head to the hideout. Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae head to the hideout and as well.
Hyun-Jo finds the hideout before Sol comes. Sol asks Hyun-Jo if he finally found out. He says I always said ghosts existed but no one beloved him. He asks if Hyun-Jo stayed to catch him and laughs.
Hyun-Jo starts realising everything and asks why did he do that. (The question I desperately wanna know the answer for).
It is 2017. Sol still hears dead bees sound everywhere that he tries to kill himself in the mountain more than once. But every time someone ends up saving him. He then decides to stay in the mountain itself. That is when he meets Hyun-Jo’s junior who is lost and asks Sol for direction. Sol recognises him and asks if he is from Black Bridge village. Hyun-Jo’s junior also recognises him as the beekeeper’s son and asks to share his number. While Sol writing his number, he asks if Sol’s father is ok which makes Sol go into shock. He thinks how unfair it is that no one remembers it. He had no intention of killing anyone though he was angry at the villagers until that moment. Sol then gives him the poisoned yoghurt which he brought to kill himself.
Hyun-Jo’s junior dies because of the poisoned yoghurt but everyone thinks that it was an accident. Also, Sol stops hearing those ghost bees sound so he decides to become a ranger and take revenge. (But Hyun-jo’s was also a kid back then and he was unaware of what his father and his friends did. But I agree that it would have been sad to know that he doesn’t remember that the Mayor didn’t want to migrate and ended up dying in the mountain.)
It was not hard to convince Se-Wook as he was dwelling in the past as well.
Present-day, in the hideout, Sol challenges Hyun-Jo to stop him if he could and starts burning the evidence saying he kept everything as a token of their sin and start burning them.
Hyun-Jo notices a notebook that has a butterfly sticker stuck to it and remembers the same kind of butterfly sticker on a phone back cover while recovering the remaining of the bus accident in which Yi-gang’s grandma died. Hyun-Jo tries as much as he can to stop him desperately but ends up disappearing.
In the hospital, a doctor fills necessary forms to send Hyun-Jo. With his family, the doctors proceed with the procedures.
Back in the mountain, Gu-Yeong and Il-Hae reach the hideout to the burned evidence and radios Dae-Jin that the evidence is ruined.
Yi-gang is not convinced and says it can’t end like this and goes out with her quadcopter. She starts searching near the hideouts thinking that she might find something. She then finds hooded Hyun-Jo heading somewhere. Yi-gang tells Dae-Jin that it should be the place she and Hyun-Jo first met as another place could be found out by Sol and says she is positive that he is gonna leave a mark there.
But it is a place 2hrs far from where Gu-Yeong is so they decide to go by themselves using a helicopter. They both reach the place and see the twigs and stones moving themselves to make a mark. Only Yi-gang can see that the twigs are held by hooded Hyun-Jo. Dae-Jin asks if it is Hyun-Jo who is making the mark. Yi-gang sees hooded Hyun-Jo cry at her and disappear.
While in the hospital, Hyun-Jo’s life support system is turned off. (🥺🥺🥺please tell me this is not happening)
Yi-gang calls for him but he is nowhere to be seen. Her thoughts cloud with how he disappeared while Dae-Jin asks where does Mark represent. Dae-Jin asks her to keep it straight as only she can find it out. Yi-gang gathers herself and looks at the mark. With some thought, she says it is not the mountain but the police station. She thinks of her every visit to the station to find out what Hyun-Jo is referring to. Yi-gang remembers seeing the phone with the butterfly sticker and then remember that it belongs to See-Wook and tells Dae-Jin about it.
Gu-Yeong, Il-Hae goes to the station and request to send the phone for forensic verification. The text messages between See-Wook and Sol gets retrieved. They have talked about their plan clearly in the text. With this evidence, police reach Sol’s house but he is nowhere to be seen. Police says Dae-Jin about it.
On the other side, Yi-gang goes to the hospital to see Hyun-Jo. But Hyun-Jo is not in his bed which makes Yi-gang cry.
She then returns to the station. But then suddenly gets attacked by Sol.
When Yi-gang gets her consciousness back she gets scared to see Sol is the one driving. Sol says he will kill her in the mountain just like others, like her grandmother. Yi-gang asks if he was the one who is the reason for that bus accident. Sol says obviously yes and says the mountain doesn’t want them. That’s why there is a forest fire, storm, flood. He says Mountain wants to wipe them all. Yi-gang says Mountain doesn’t want anything and says only his crazy mind thinks so. She then jumps off from the car.
Sol brings a rod and says he will finish her off now itself. And right when he puts all his strength in the rod to hit her rock falls in the road. The rocks fall right where Sol was which leaves him dead. Fortunately, Yi-gang is safe. (It was as if the mountain punished him)
A year later, Gu-Yeong goes to a park where he and Yang-Sun went. He remembers how little time he spent with her to study for his promotion exam and how Yang-sun encouraged him to tell him she is alright. He remembers the kiss they shared, the small talk they had. He then sits at a place. He receives a message saying he cleared the promotion exam and got promoted to team leader. He starts crying. (Well, he was not the only one😭)
On his patrol, he meets Hyun-Jo’s sister. She offers him a drink as usual. He denies it and runs straight to the station leaving her dumbfounded. Well, we can see that he was being cutely shy.
Il-Hae becomes the Commander as Dae-Jin retires. Il-Hae and Gu-Yeong quarrel cutely as usual. It was as if nothing is changed💖.
Yi-gang interviews for new rangers. The lottery girl comes to the interview. Yi-gang asks why she wants to become a ranger. The girl says she doesn’t know that but if she can she want to become a ranger and return the favour. Yi-gang asks if she is still scared of the mountain and says
I was also afraid of mountains once but a mountain is just a mountain.
Everyone has a mountain in their own heart.
Some go up mountains to live, some go up to die.
The mindset that hikers have when they climb the mountain isn’t important.
Because all we do is to keep them safe.
If you have a burden in your heart, put it down.
A Mountain is just a mountain.
It is December 31st night. Il-Hae wakes Gu-Yeong in the middle of the night and says they should leave now and says the other team are headed as well. As they come out of the station, Yi-gang joins them. To our surprise, her legs are back and she started as a ranger again😊.
They go to the peak and handle the crowd which is there to see the first sunrise of the year. Gu-Yeong says to the crowd that the sunrise is the same as yesterday and there is nothing special today which made me smile😊.
Yi-gang sees Dae-Jin has also come up with his daughter and nags that he should know better. Dae-Jin asks if it is a crime to enjoy the sunrise with his daughter. Yi-gang shoves them like others but Dae-Jin and his daughter find a way out to watch the beautiful sunrise.
While handling the crowd, Yi-gang looks at a back of a man who is similar to Hyun-Jo. (Is that him?). We are flashed to the day when Yi-gang went to the hospital and sees the empty bed where Hyun-Jo was lying. After that, a nurse runs over to her and says she was about to call her and says Hyun-Jo started breathing on his own again. (Whaaa.. What a relief). Back to the present day, Hyun-Jo turns to Yi-gang and they both smile at each other. They both definitely feel something more now towards each other. What a unique bond it is😊.
Yi-gang asks Hyun-Jo if he sees things anymore. Hyun-Jo says he doesn’t get those visions anymore.
The series ends here.
If you ask me if I understand Sol then my answer is yes. I was not kidding when I said I started to understand the psychopaths and villains in the series these days. I surely do understand him.
He was left alone in this world at such a young age. He saw his mother die and his father who was going crazy day by day. He saw his father give up on him and this world. He saw his own fellow villagers betray his family. He saw dead bees which were also his family. He heard those ghost bees for so long. What can we expect from a kid who went through this much in his life!?!
The only wrong thing that happened was he didn’t ask for help. He didn’t reach out to anyone to tell them what he was going through. Sometimes it may feel impossible for others to understand our feelings but we should at least try. We should trust others as well and it is not a bad thing. He could have started a new and happy life while leaving everything back. But he couldn’t. I wish there was a person who could understand him and lead him to the right path. But sadly there wasn’t. He started having a delusion that the mountain is on his side. Sadly Hyun-Jo and Yi-gang found these out so late.
What do you guys think about Sol!?
I felt like the climax was sugar-coated. It was as if all is well if the end is well which is true still I needed time to accept it.
And the constant switching between years made me dizzy sometimes.
Otherwise, I liked the entire journey 😄😄.
How did you guys feel about the series?
This series made me realise so much about mountains and rangers. It was so relaxing to see the mountain every time. Maybe one first day of the new year I will go to a mountain and enjoy the sunrise. The fact that am broke held me back this year😂.
Take care of your loved ones, check on them regularly and most importantly love yourself!. You glow differently when you love yourself. Love yourself so much and learn to let go of your hardships and hate in your heart.
With that, wish you a very very happy new year. I hope this year all of your wishes come true😄.
