Sisyphus: The Myth – K-Drama Episode 13 Recap & Review

Express Delivery

Episode 13 of Sisyphus begins with Sigma enticing Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae to leave the school and join him. Now it becomes clear that he was Won-Ju from the past. Tae-Sul answers the phone and antagonizes him. Eventually though Sigma decides to head in alone, with snipers covering his back while he does.

As the Control Bureau begin firing through the windows, Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae scramble away, moving bookshelves in front of a door to prevent Sigma from getting in. All of the Control Bureau soldiers head in and surround the room too.

Trapped inside, Seo-Hae and Tae-Sul realize the soldiers seem to be waiting for something. Well, due to future events not being able to be changed (even though we’ve seen they already have been thanks to Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae’s Asiamart antics last episode) they decide to bide their time and wait. In fact, Tae-Sul scribbles their names on the wall in the hope that this rewrites time in some way.

Midway through talking, gunshots sound outside as the Control Bureau are attacked by an unknown sniper. This man takes out all of the armed guards single-handedly, driving up in Tae-Sul’s car. It’s Bong-Seon, dressed in his post-apocalyptic gear. However, he’s clearly injured.

As we jump back to the post-apocalyptic future (Timey wimey wibbly wobbly and all that!), Bong-Seon drives Seo-Hae and her Father to the station. There, numerous dead bodies line the floor. The pair wait in the middle of the train tracks and camp out, where Dong-Gi implores his daughter never to meet Tae-Sul in this timeline. If she does then it will cause problems.

They’re both interrupted by armed thugs chasing them through the tunnel though, as they make it to Achasan on the other side. Together, Seo-Hae and her Father fight through the armed guards. It’s a pretty cool fight in truth, as the camera swings around and shows Seo-Hae fighting through these different guards in a slick series of well-choregraphed takes.

Seo-Hae eventually makes a big decision and decides against killing the bandits, bemoaning this cursed war they’;re wrapped up in. Together, they make it to a weird oasis where numerous rich people are living the high life. Among them is Sigma who happens to be painting in a private room. Seo-Hae and Dong-Gi eventually flee, as armed guards arrive.

Back in the present, Bong-Seon begins glitching out, eventually leaving Tae-Sul after thanking him and handing over a metal tin.

Meanwhile at Quantum & Time, Eddie Kim tries to work on the Uploader but unfortunately everything fizzles out and fails to work. Eddie is irate, especially as Tae-Sul managed to create all these schematics when he was 15 with just a pencil. He’s haunted by Tae-Sul’s ghost too, who antagonizes him from afar. This eventually sees Eddie run away.

Eddie heads back and speaks to Seo-Jin, bemoaning his experiences working and desperately wanting to beat Tae-Sul no matter what.

Meanwhile, police question Seo Gil-Bok at the station, who happens to be Sigma. The officer in charge warns that there could be a jail sentence for him if he continues to post comments about Tae-Sul online.

On the back of this, Gil-Bok writes a message apologizing and claiming he’s always been jealous of Tae-Sul. As he heads home, the letter of apology winds up falling across the ground.

On the back of this, Gil-Bok decided to end his own life. Tying a noose around his neck in his art studio, he begins sobbing. However, he then receives a call confirming that one of his paintings has been sold. This is enough for Gil-Bok to prevent killing himself. Tae-Sul happens to be the very person who bought this painting from him, in an ironic twist of fate.

Just after, he receives a visit from Seo-Hae and Tae-Sul, who call him Won-Ju and hold the man up at gunpoint. Throwing him down, the pair contemplate whether to kill Sigma or not. Now, if they do then this changes the timeline. Thanks to Seo-Hae’s weird visions, she’s unable to follow through with this.

Eddie Kim is brought to the Hospital and shown down to the Control Bureau. He’s pretty surprised to be there, which is ironic given his face and identity actually have clearance to head in. If you’ll remember, Sun adopted his identity and head in.

Anyway, inside is the Prime Minister along with various other officials from the Blue House who happen to be gathered together to celebrate. Among them is Sigma, who sits at the most important seat of the table.

Sigma and the others meet Eddie for the first time. They know he’s making the Uploader and give him a big round of applause. After, they load up the footage from the art studio and see the scene playing out with Sigma in the past.

Apparently Sigma is well aware of what’s happening in the studio, which seems to have led them to this exact moment. Just before firing, Sigma rings and catches Tae-Sul off-guard.

Sigma mentions Tae-Sul brother Tae-San, and tells him his body must be somewhere else in the present. It turns out Sigma actually has him captive and is taking care of him right now. In order to see Tae-San again, Tae-Sul will need to say goodbye to Seo-Hae.

Meanwhile at Asiamart, a black suitcase is sent back through time. Inside though happens to be a strange item. Quite what this is though, remains to be seen.

Still, CEO Park and Bingbing head off together, eventually arriving at the art gallery and showing what’s inside this package; a gun, a severed hand and a photo of Seo-Hae and her Father. All of this happens to be part of Sigma’s master-plan, as he watches this transpire gleefully. He fingers a scar across his shoulder as we see Seo-Hae fire the gun.

The Episode Review

Sisyphus returns this week with another episode that literally feels like pushing a boulder up a steep hill. The writing in this show continues to slip up time and again so I do apologize to those who have been reading these recaps and actually enjoy the story.

As well shot as these sequences are, why did we need 20 minutes in the post-apocalyptic future just to see Seo-Hae and her Father fight through goons and find a lavish nightclub?

Speaking of which, surely this then renders Seo-Hae’s comments about the bathhouse and finding running water completely redundant given she’s already seen water in a swimming pool?

While I understand the time travel elements can be tricky to get right, the situation with Eddie just falls back on sloppy plotting. We had a whole episode of Sun infiltrating the hospital disguised as Eddie Kim – with a facial recognition system that seemed to track Eddie and his retina.

Why then is he and everyone else so shocked and surprised to see him there? If they’ve gone through the hassle of actually registering him in the system, surely they would all know who he is?

Sisyphus continues to stumble over its time travel element too, rendering a lot of what’s going on here easily resolved if Tae-Sul and/or Sigma are just killed and done away with. If everything has always happened this way and never changed, why not just send something back through time to disrupt the timeline?

On top of all that, Sisyphus then ends with a cliffhanger that we already know the answer to. We know Sigma survives and we know he takes a bullet through the neck, especially if everything here has been orchestrated exactly like this. Or has the timeline changed? We’ll have to wait and see with tomorrow’s episode!