Sisyphus: The Myth – K-Drama Episode 11 Recap & Review

The Doors

Episode 11 of Sisyphus begins with the long-awaited showdown between Sigma and Tae-Sul. Buckle up guys, this one’s going to be a good. Sigma marches up to Tae-Sul, a big grin on his face, as CEO Park is brought in too. Sister Agnes sees him arrive and immediately frowns, telling Park he’s ruined everything.

The prisoners switch places, with CEO Park thrown inside the cage while Tae-Sul sits opposite Sigma. Apparently he didn’t know Tae-Sul would be there and instead is there to see Sister Agnes. It turns out Agnes despises illegal entrants.

The attention soon turns back to Tae-Sul and, more specifically, the Uploader. Sigma admits he can’t lie and wants Tae-Sul to finish coding the program. Tae-Sul refuses to do so though as Sigma scoffs. He reminds the scientist that it’s only the Korean peninsula that falls during the war, not the entire world. Sigma even rationales this catastrophe, claiming lots of people want to die.

To prove his point, Sigma hands over a gun to Tae-Sul and asks him to shoot. He refuses to do so though, hands shaking, as he realizes he’s unable to pull the trigger and do this. Sigma is disappointed, especially as he sees this choice as Tae-Sul allowing the world to be destroyed in exchange for saving a girl.

After some back and forth jabs, including Sigma telling Tae-Sul he’s the root cause for his brother’s suffering, he admits to being the one who broke into his apartment. He smiles, claiming he can get anywhere and leaves. However, not before asking Tae-Sul if he recognizes him. Tae-Sul’s puzzled look proves he doesn’t.

Back at Asia Mart, Bingbing continues to use the computer but Tae-Sul backing up the server has caused big problems for them. In the midst of talking, Sun deduces that Sigma is the one caught in the middle of all this.

Just then, Sister Agnes (aka Seo-Jin) arrives with Tae-Sul an the others. She places the receiver on Seo-Hae’s head and tells them all to leave except Tae-Sul. Alone, Agnes confirms that Seo-Hae is lost in her mind, wandering through different timelines. This means Tae-Sul needs to jump in and try to guide her toward the light.

Meanwhile, Park and Seo-Jin speak in the present. Apparently Park deceived her after promising to help her out if she got Tae-San “out of there.” At the same time, Hyeong-Gi is relieved of his duty for the time being, especially on the back of Hyun-Seung finding out about Seo-Hae.

With the door left open, Hyeong-Gi sneaks into the main chamber and grabs a gun and badge. He also takes Seo-Hae’s file too, which confirms everything that she’s been doing all this time. This all seems to be part of the master plan, as Sigma speaks to Hyun-Seung at the Control Bureau about both Seo-Hae and Hyung-Gi’s destiny.

With an injection, Tae-Sul is whisked up into Seo-Hae’s memories. Wandering through this surreal wave of locales, he finds Seo-Hae just wandering around, chilling outside. Only, she doesn’t recognize him. At least not to begin with anyway. Seo-Hae suffers from a nasty headache which eventually sees her bolt upright and come to her senses.

Unfortunately she’s not alone in feeling ill. Tae-Sul begins coughing up blood; something is seriously wrong. In fact, Tae-Sul is suddenly whisked up into his own past memories. Specifically, they find themselves together during the moments he was deceived at his Father’s funeral.

We then cut forward to Tae-San and Tae-Sul spreading their Father’s ashes by the beach. As he and Seo-Hae continue to jump through time, we see more of the pair spending time together. With Tae-Sul still little, Tae-San stayed strong for his brother, weeping in private so he didn’t have to see. Our Tae-Sul sees this take place and it breaks him, realizing that his Father has always been so strong for him.

The next door leads them to the day Tae-San died. Tae-Sul has 10 missed calls and refuses to answer to him. Sitting with Seo-Jin, Tae-Sul listens to himself talk about how Tae-San didn’t raise him and how his destiny is his own. It’s a step too far for Tae-Sul who suddenly glitches out and transports them both to a strange wasteland.

There, Seo-Hae offers some encouraging words to him, allowing them both to step through the next door where they wash up on the West Sea, with the Quantum, & Time Headquarters in the backdrop.

Unfortunately Tae-Sul’s syringe is shattered, only allowing one to work. He decides to bring Seo-Hae back and sacrifice himself. With only one available to use, he injects Seo-Hae and stays on this strange beach. He tells Seo-Hae that she’s more important to the future than he is and tells her to catch Sigma.

Now, just to remind everyone that Tae-Sul still being alive is the only reason all of this has played out the way that it has. So if Tae-Sul stays inside this weird memory-machine then the Uploader is never created. This actually stops the war and time completely resets.

His whole idea about Seo-Hae catching Sigma would never come to pass because it’s literally impossible to continue down this timeline. Anyway, best to switch your brain off and not think about logic one iota. I digress:

After kissing, Seo-Hae awakens to find herself in Asiamart. With Seo-Hae gone, Tae-San suddenly shows up on the beach with Tae-Sul, telling him he was sure they’d meet up again. It turns out he’s been hiding in this weird place all this time.

Tae-Sul apologizes, grabbing his brother and weeping. However, it turns out he has a syringe ready to take him back. Tae-San confirms that this is the last time they’ll see each other and promises that he’ll always be there for him. It’s a touching moment and one that allows the two brothers to finally hug it out and say goodbye.

Tae-Sul eventually doers wake up though, hugging Seo-Hae warmly as the two survive their ordeal and prepare for what’s to come next.

The Episode Review

So Sisyphus: The Myth delivers another episode of tantalizing flashbacks that shed more light on Tae-San and Tae-Sul’s background. The idea of shifting through different doors and seeing glimpses of the past isn’t a wholly original idea (hello WandaVision) but it is executed pretty effectively here to see more of Tae-Sul’s past and understanding what role his brother has to play in all this.

It also sets up an intriguing second half to come as this chapter essentially serves as a bridge between the first and second parts. Unfortunately that bridge happens to be made of wet spaghetti.

I’ve said it before but the timeline here is completely skewed so I won’t keep bringing that up for fear of sounding like a skipped record. However, the show does require you to suspend quite a bit of disbelief and logic to enjoy it fully. I’d also imagine this one holds up better as a solid binge-watch rather than an agonizing crawl between weeks. After all, these weeks allow you to think more about the plot and therein lies the problem.

Despite all that though, if you’ve followed this one through to this time I’d imagine you’ll be fully onboard with Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae’s quest to stop Sigma. While the drama has a great cast and some beautiful imagery, this simply serves as a veil to disguise from the messy writing.