Alice – K-Drama Episode 4 Recap & Review

The Time Travelling Boy

Sejeong High School – Class of 2011

Alice is really shaping up to be a must-watch Korean drama this year. Alongside Flower Of Evil, this is the one that’s really starting to rise up as a show-stopping centrepiece and it’s easy to see why. From parallel universes and time travel paradoxes, Alice really throws its weight behind these ideas. This episode is no exception and the shocking ending leaves things wide open for this weekend’s double bill of drama.

We begin episode 4 of Alice in the past, as students celebrate graduating school in 2011. Among them is Jin-Gyeom but his graduation is less than happy given the death of his Mother.

2010

As we cut back a year, we see Jin-Gyeom eating food with Hyeon-Seok. Of course, this is long before he’s a police officer and a long time before his subsequent death. As he talks, he mentions his son and Hyeon-Seok confirms the boy died from heart failure.

Given his less-than-elegant touch to subjects like this, Jin-Gyeom hits straight at the heart of the issue. On the way out, Detective Ko is confronted by a tattoo-wearing man. He stabs Hyeon-Seok but thankfully Jin-Gyeom is right there to save him.

2020

Hyeon-Seok receives a knife to the stomach just as before – a symbolic gesture given much more meaning now following what happened in the past. Jin-Gyeom sits staring in the distance while Do-Yeon tries in vain to help him. Now the context of his tears makes sense when Tae-Yi shows up.

Together, the duo head off and discuss the Time Card. Specifically, they discuss Jin-Gyeom’s Mother who Yae-Yi is convinced isn’t a normal woman. The tech stored in that card isn’t from 2020 and she almost hints that she believes his time travelling story.

Jin-Gyeom reluctantly invites Tae-Yi back to his house. She wants to find clues over who his Mother really is. Tellingly, in the background to her is a picture of Jin-Gyeom and his Mother which he doesn’t point out to her. When she breaks a pearl necklace Jin-Gyeom’s seen enough and kicks her out.

Sister

Sun-Hee remains fixated on trying to cure little Eun-Soo who’s looking the worse for wear. Frazzled, she phones through and requests assistance. However, a wild-card arrives at the door. That wildcard being Jin Gyeom. He heads inside and finds Eun-Soo weakened on the bed alone.

As the girl opens her eyes, Jin-Gyeom takes her hand. As we soon see, up on the roof Sun-Hee discusses the situation with two Alice operatives. They ask about her phone but that happens to be downstairs. With Alice operatives in the building, Jin-Gyeom scoops up the little girl and heads down to the parking lot.

Only, as he does he comes face to face with Min-Hyuk. Predictably the duo square off again but this time it’s Jin-Gyeom who’s overpowered… until fellow officer Dong-Ho shows up and manages to put Min-Hyuk in handcuffs. Only, his smile quickly disappears when he turns back to find the man gone.

Alice Headquarters

Sun-Hee is taken back to headquarters and thinks back over her time with Eun-Soo. Defeated, she takes out the ear-piece and instantly turns old again. When Min-Hyuk shows up, he talks to her about what she experienced.

On the back of this, Cheol-Am speaks to the operator (Shi-Young I believe) and asks for Eun-Soo’s mother to be let go. In response, she mentions Lee Se-Hoon is going to be released from prison soon. That man happens to be the assassin at the start of the first episode so that should make for some interesting storytelling in the future.

In a bid to tie up loose ends, Alice kill the operative working with Eun-Soo’s Mother in the past. However Jin-Gyeom learns about this and joins the police at the crime scene.

Kuiper Research Centre

Jin-Gyeom heads into the research centre to investigate the case further. As fate would have it, Tae-Yi happens to be there getting crucial information on the time card. However she needs the card itself in order to do more tests.

When the director arrives , Jin-Gyeom’s mannerisms change completely. He grabs the man by the throat and pulls him up against the side. It turns out back in 2010 he heard from the police that his Mother was last seen with a man looking incredibly similar. In fact, as the two faces overlap in a clever bit of editing, they’re exactly the same. Unfortunately the composite sketch isn’t enough to arrest this man.

The Butterfly Effect

In a bid to learn more, Jin-Gyeom heads back to the research centre and listens to a lecture from this man. He discusses parallel universes and interesting sci-fi concepts. It’s an intriguing speech and one that’s followed up with Jin-Gyeom meeting him privately in his office. There he doesn’t given apology but instead asks for someone called Gi-Hoon. Only, there’s no one in the system by that name.

Jin-Gyeom is relentless though and goes on to ask about drones. However, that information is classified. Just before he leaves, Jin-Gyeom asks outright what this man thinks about time travel.

As the two dance around what they really mean, Jin-Gyeom heads back to see Tae-Yi and tells her not to get involved anymore. Unfortunately Tae-Yi does anything but, speaking to the Director outright about Jin-Gyeom’s time card.

As she gets off the phone, Tae-Yi looks outside and sees a drone buzzing by. She predictably phones Jin-Gyeom who races over to hers as quickly as possible. Only, as he does a lorry strikes the side of the car and tips over the vehicle. Lo and behold, no one appears to be inside when this happens.

As pages from the prophecy are read by the Director, Jin-Gyeom awakens to find himself back in 2010 at the University. The time card is still in his pocket but his phone has no service and everything is obviously very different now. A child drops her sketchbook – which has pictures looking suspiciously like that from the Book Of Prophecy – and spots Jin-Gyeom.

The Episode Review

The end of Alice seems to hint that something is going to happen between Tae-Yi and Jin-Gyeom. Could it be that the prophesied child (Jin-Gyeom) is actually the son of Tae-Yi and Jin-Gyeom. The idea of Jin-Gyeom actually being the father to himself is something that’s hard to get your head around but may not be that far from the truth.

Then again I could be way off. It could be more to do with parallel universes as the deliberately placed lecture seemed to hint at this toward the end. Then again, it could all be a big red herring. That is ultimately what makes Alice such an enthralling and engaging watch. It’s so hard to predict what’s going to happen next but the show is really channelling an excellent amount of mystery to make this a must-watch series.

With the ratings growing every week, I wouldn’t be surprised if this starts hitting the top spot soon, especially with Flower of Evil nearing the end of its run. Until then, Alice is certainly gearing up to be quite the intriguing prospect for the future.