See You in My 19th Life season 1 episode 8 recap & review: Casting One’s Fate Unto the Dice

Open Go TV / July 10, 2023 / Reviews

In the eighth episode of See You in My 19th Life, Seo-ha finds out about the person responsible for the accident, and Ji-eum shares her secret with him. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

When Ji-eum sees glimpses of her first life, she follows Seo-ha inside the building. The men who were tracking Mr. Bang reached there before Seo-ha and killed Mr. Bang. Seo-ha tries to catch them, but they manage to get away after hurting him.

Before dying, Mr. Bang felt something was not right and gave the evidence, which he was supposed to hand over to Seo-ha, to his subordinate, Yang-sik. He sent Yang-sik away before the men got him.

Chairman Mun is informed that the police have ruled out Mr. Bang’s death as suicide. Chairman Mun then calls Ji-eum to his house and tries to pay her to keep her mouth shut.

Ji-eum suspects him and asks him if he is hiding something. He asks her to leave when he realizes that she is not going to take the money and will keep questioning him.

Ae-gyeong has become fond of Min-gi and treats him like family. Ji-eum speaks to Min-gi alone and tells him about what she remembered from her first life. She adds that she recognized someone who is very dear to her in this life.

She also asks Min-gi if he was also a part of her first life. Instead of answering her, he asks her to touch the shaman bells again. This time, she sees herself embracing Seo-ha. What she does not know is that Min-gi was indeed a part of her first life.

Yang-sik leaves the bag full of evidence outside Seo-ha’s house with a note informing him that Mr. Bang did not die by suicide. Seo-ha goes through the evidence and finds out that the truck driver who hit Seo-ha’s car was hired by Mr. Bang and is none other than Ji-eum’s father, Ban Hak-su.

While Seo-ha is still trying to decide what he should do with the evidence, he gets a call from Ji-eum, who asks him to imagine them as lovers in another life, a thousand years ago.

She tells him that eventually their souls will become one, and they will find peace. This leads Seo-ho to realize that he only wants to think about Ji-eum and himself together, not about their families.

The next day, Ji-eum’s father comes to the hotel to ask her for money. He tries to create a scene, but Ji-eum throws him out. Seo-ha witnesses this and praises her the way she had praised him when he was distressed after finding out that the accident was ordered by someone close to him.

Cho-won tells Do-yun that she will keep liking him even if they do not date. She then gives him a ring made of the prettiest flower in the garden to express her love.

Han-na, who was Seo-ha’s mother in her past life, comes to deliver flowers to Ms. Jang. The flowers come with a note that asks Ms. Jang if she remembers that these were the anonymous sender’s favorite flowers. The note shocks Ms. Jang, as these were Seo-ha’s mother’s favorite flowers.

Seo-ha invites Ji-eum to his house and cooks for her. Ji-eum tells him how she does not have a single good memory of her father and how she ran away from home to live with Ae-gyeong.

Later, she finds the evidence in Seo-ha’s room and realizes that the man who is her father in this life killed her in her past life. She goes to meet her father and questions him about committing murder.

He tells her that Mr. Bang agreed to let go of his debt in exchange for hitting Seo-ha’s car with his truck; it was supposed to be a minor accident, not murder. The way that he talks about the accident makes Ji-eum think that he is not human.

She tells him that this is the last time she will be seeing him in this lifetime. He tries to tell her that the truck’s brakes malfunctioned at the last minute, but she does not stay to hear him out. He remembers how an injured Seo-ha asked him for help, but he ran away from there.

Seo-ha does not want to take action against Ban Hak-su for Ji-eum’s sake, so he burns the evidence. He ends up finding a cassette tape in the bag and listens to the recording. He comes to know that it was his uncle, Director Lee, who ordered the accident.

Ji-eum meets Han-na, and the two of them suspect that Ms. Jang was behind the accident. Ji-eum meets Ms. Jang and asks her if the accident was her doing, but Ms. Jang tells her that she does not do anything to displease Chairman Mun.

When Ji-eum sees Director Lee there, she suddenly figures out that he must have ordered the accident because he is the only person that Chairman Mun would try to cover up for, as he would not want Seo-ha to find out about his involvement.

Seo-ha breaks down when he realizes that his uncle betrayed him. He blames himself and thinks that Ju-won and Do-yun’s father died because of him. He believes that he does not deserve happiness.

Ji-eum, who goes to Seo-ha’s house as soon as she finds out the truth, does not want him to think that. To alleviate his guilt, she decides to tell him her secret. She plays the tune that Ju-won used to play for Seo-ha; Ju-won had told him that the tune was composed by her.

A shocked Seo-ha asks Ji-eum how she knows this tune, and she gives him the exact same answer as Ju-won. He cannot understand how she is aware of what Ju-won said to him, and she tells him that she was Ju-won.

Review

While it was predictable that the accident was ordered by either Chairman Mun or Director Lee, the show managed to make the revelation dramatic. The mystery factor is still there, as the audience does not know Director Lee’s motives.
Ji-eum continues to be a strange character. She catches the other characters, along with the audience, off guard by asking them blunt questions that people usually do not ask anyone. She does not believe in beating around the bush, even when she is questioning people about committing murder.
In terms of the development of Ji-eum and Seo-ha’s love story, this episode is important. It depicts that Ji-eum trusts Seo-ha enough to share her secret with him while he is ready to let go of the past for her sake.