My Demon – K-drama Episode 12 Recap & Review

The Savior of Destruction

Episode 12 of My Demon starts with Gu-won pondering whether there is such a thing as a given fate. Is it impossible for humans to escape the frame of fate and make their own destiny? Through a flashback, we travel back to 200 years ago when the love story of Wolsim and Young Master Yi-sun started.  

We are first introduced to Yi-sun, a dashing young man from a noble family, pampered by his dad loved by the villagers. He was known for being a young man who indulged in various pursuits while refusing to study.

One fateful day, he chooses to skip his lessons to go flower-watching near the river. There, he came across a beautiful flower named Wolsim, who was practising her sword dance. 

She immediately enchanted him as she moved ever so gracefully while dancing. Indeed, Wolsim was a rare beauty to behold. However, she had heard about Yi-sun and wished to keep her distance from him. However, Yi-sun made it his mission to make her notice him. Even after learning she is a Kisaeng from Hanyang who recently relocated to the village. He was determined to befriend her, so he started visiting the river, always pretending to study.

As the days passed, Wolsim could no longer ignore the handsome lad who wanted her attention. They got close, and she confessed she was sent to the village because she refused to dance for a powerful man back in Hanyang.

Wolsim believes she is lucky to be alive after disobeying such a man. She has no disillusions about her status in life and wishes to keep a low profile, living life without trouble. She knows that Yi-sun can’t marry her, and the best she can hope for is to be his concubine.

Her thoughts change the more she spends time with Yi-sun, who turns to Catholicism and tries to teach her they are equal. These teachings come as a salvation to them, given the society’s insistence that status is important. They both join the faith and continue spending their time together.

They dream of a day when everyone can be treated with respect and allowed to mingle regardless of their status. They promise to wed as soon as Yi-sun passes his state examination. As a promise to return, Yi-sun gives Wolsim a cross necklace to remember him by while he is away. 

Sadly, when Yi-sun leaves for his state examination, his servant updates Yi-sun’s father about his son’s relationship with Wolsim and his newfound faith. At the same time, the elders become wary of the new religion, saying it is threatening the Confucianism the nation was built on.

A war against the Catholics started, and many people were killed and their houses burnt. To save his village, Yi-sun’s dad sacrifices Wolsim and outs her as a Catholic. 

Wolsim is arrested and interrogated about the cross necklace. She refuses to give up Yi-sun and is sentenced to death. Unfortunately, Yi-sun arrives after she has been slain and watches her die. In fury and anger, he turns against those who sacrificed Wolsim and kills them all. It was a bloody ending to an ill-fated love story cursed by society’s biases. After killing everyone, Yi-sun commits suicide because he lost faith in God and humanity. 

Presently, Gu-won wakes up from his dream, riddled with guilt over what happened to Wolsim. He blames himself as he was the one who introduced her to the Catholic faith. He also worries that fate might repeat itself and he will hurt Do-hee.

His wife wakes up and notices something is off with Gu-won. He admits he had a nightmare and remembered the woman from his past. Do-hee is jealous and asks how the relationship ended. Of course, Gu-won lies that the relationship had an insignificant ending. However, his demeanour troubles Do-hee, and she starts overthinking. Ultimately, she decides to give him space and time to open up about his dreams. 

On the other hand, Gu-won visits the deity and laments why he was turned into a demon. The deity informs him that his grudge towards human beings made him the best candidate for the job. Gu-won finds it ironic that his faith was rewarded in such a manner. However, the deity cautions him that faith is dangerous and shows no remorse for turning Gu-won into a demon.

Instead, she asks if Gu-won is mad at himself and worried about the future. She says that when the tattoo was transferred back to Gu-won, he entangled their fate again, allowing misfortune to strike. Her words anger Gu-won and she insists it is a fate he created and must see it through.

Gu-won heads to his office and stares at the painting, finally understanding its meaning. He tells Bok-gyu about the memories from his past. Bok-gyu worries, but Gu-won says he won’t tell Do-hee the truth. He argues it will hurt her for no good reason. His despair causes him to say something worrying to Seok-hoon when they run into each other in the elevator.

Elsewhere, Se-ra visits her son in prison and encourages him to hang in there. She says Suk-min will get him out in no time. However, Do-gyeong blames her for allowing Suk-min to hurt him. He says he has always protected her, but she has only watched from the sidelines. Se-ra claims that it was because Do-gyeong disobeyed his father and needed to be punished. Her son breaks down and loses it.

Before being escorted by the guard, Do-gyeong warns his mom to prepare for her turn. He must be alluding to what Suk-min will do to Se-ra. After the prison visit, Se-ra goes shopping. She gets a call and faints from shock at the store. 

Concurrently, Do-hee receives a call, and she shockingly informs Seok-hoon and Gu-won of the passing of Do-gyeong. Do-gyeong died after it was established he suffered from a variety of mental illnesses. According to the official report, he committed suicide, but Se-ra is suspicious of her husband. She also has a burn wound on her arm. It is unclear if she hurt herself or if Suk-min burned her. We know that is one of his punishment methods.

At the funeral, Suk-min apologises to Do-hee and asks her to remain silent for the company’s sake. He insists that silence is best for the family and the company. Once again, he makes it look like he sees Do-hee as family, but that’s a lie. Thankfully, Do-hee is onto him and doesn’t buy the crap he is spewing.

As expected, Su-ahn causes a scene at the funeral, and Suk-min calms her down. He cleverly gets her to behave accordingly by mentioning that her children are the only heirs left. You could literally see the dollar signs floating on Su-ahn’s eyes after realising this!

Gu-won and Do-hee leave the stifling funeral. She asks to pay respect to Chun-seok. While there, Do-hee admits she feels angry even after the culprit was caught. She feels like Do-gyeong never got his punishment. She hopes time will heal her pain, and Gu-won says it will.

Meanwhile, our new love birds, Bok-gyu and Da-jeong, have a date in the park and are nearly busted by their colleagues. Bok-gyu invites Da-jeong to Ga-young’s performance the following night, but she turns him down. She is still unsure about the relationship and wants to keep a fine line between work and personal time.

The performance night rolls by, and Ga-young announces she will leave as soon as she is done. She warmly accepts Do-hee’s flowers and promises not to bother them anymore. She is no longer hung up on Gu-won. Let’s say she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and there was no Gu-won!

She delivers a fantastic performance, but it reminds Gu-won of Wolsim. He finally comes clean to Do-hee about the people he killed in his past. He shares his fear of making her miserable, but Do-hee says she doesn’t care. As long as they are together, she will take being miserable any given day.  

As Ga-young’s dance ends, Do-hee and Gu-won hold hands. They are sure their love will see them through the good and the bad times. It will save them, and they will defy fate and have a happy ending. Maybe that’s true, but it remains to be seen. 

Elsewhere, a priest prays for God’s protection. We also see Chun-seok the night Do-hee’s parents died. She saw Gu-won as he came to collect his dues. It looks like Gu-won had made a deal with Do-hee’s parents, but what was the deal? The episode ends with Gu-won mischievously smiling at Chun-seok. Did she get into a contract with him?

The Episode Review

It is possible that Chun-seok visited the priest after witnessing Gu-won at the crime scene. We don’t know if or how the priest relates to this story. However, we are most curious about the contract between Gu-won and Do-hee’s parents. What if he caused their accident? Will Do-hee understand? It is also possible he allowed them a dying wish. Curiosity is going to kill us. We have to wait a whole week to find out as different theories keep popping up in our brains. 

Why was Chun-seok there? Did she get into a contract with Gu-won? Most importantly, why does Gu-won act like he doesn’t know these encounters happened? He does remember his life as a demon, right? This is something he should have mentioned before. What do you guys think?

On a happy and less confusing note, I am glad Ga-young finally took the hint and stopped being obsessive. Seok-hoon is also growing on us. These two would make a great couple. This is only if Seok-hoon is a good guy. The investigation into him is still pending. 

Lastly, we hope to discover the truth behind Do-gyeong’s death and Suk-min’s plan. What will happen to Se-ra? Is she planning a retaliation, or will she continue to act meekly in front of her husband?