Sisyphus: The Myth – K-Drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

Party Crasher

Episode 6 of Sisyphus: The Myth begins 19 years ago as we starts our journey on 6th August 2001. This happens to be a significant date in history, as we’re shown Tae-Sul and Tae-San’s headquarters.

A vibrating phone sees a sleepy Tae-Sul pick up while his brother is working at the station. He tells Tae-Sul he’ll be home soon and hangs up. Tae-Sul comments how he’s screwed and checks the computer. As it whirrs to life, he hits the escape key and causes a nationwide blackout, plunging Seoul into darkness. This, unfortunately, extends to the underground where Tae-San is working, although thankfully the emergency lights are still on.

Tae-San notices a man appear on the train tracks with a suitcase, holding a picture of him and Tae-Sul together. On the back is a list, detailing the different attacks made against Tae-Sul. These include dates and incidents we’ve already seen, but tellingly we don’t see everything on this. At least, I don’t think we do.

Anyway, this traveler suddenly awakens and takes off down the tracks, stumbling as a train approaches. Tae-San seems to follow.

Elsewhere, CEO Park stews in his office, eventually getting up and writing a cheque for 3 million won to Kim Jin-Hui. Bingbing chirpily shows up though and sees what he’s doing, making a point of showing how little the other employees get.

In the present, Seo-Hae awakens and takes off with Tae-Sul. Unfortunately they’re being watched. The pair shake off any suspicions though and show up at a Quantum & Time party. Seo-Hae is going to head in alone while Tae-Sul hides, comments how it’s too risky for him to attend. After tentatively putting an earpiece in so they can communicate, he hands over an EMP just incase everything goes awry.

The Control Bureau do eventually show up at the estate though, with strict orders to shoot “the woman” dead if they see her. Anyway, Seo-Hae shows up and begins talking into the earpiece, not exactly making it discrete that she’s undercover.

Eddie Kim notices her but everything is interrupted by Kim Han-Yong taking the podium. He introduces Eddie as the new CEO while Tae-Sul watches from the window. While he’s apparently trying to be discrete, the establishing shot has him stand out like a sore thumb, peeking in the upstairs window.

Eddie eventually introduces himself to Seo-Hae, telling her that she looks familiar. He asks whether they met at the conference, as she tries to remain calm and collected. Just to interject here, given she was on the news and wanted, surely any sort of disguise would have been better than just waltzing in unannounced? Anyway, back to the story:

Eddie Kim continues to probe Seo-Hae, who remains silent when he asks if she knows Tae-Sul. She tells him she’s there with a friend but tellingly doesn’t point out who. However, while glancing around she suddenly spies Tae-San and races off.

Seo-Hae informs Tae-Sul too but the connection is poor on the earpiece. In the office though, he notices documents on the table linked to Sigma. Specifically, a sort of agreement that binds Quantum & Time to this shadowy group, allowing them to share technology together.

Kim Han-Yong suddenly shows in his office, prompting Tae-Sul to break his cover and confront the old man. It turns out Sigma are the investors but Tae-Sul’s nonchalant attitude has got the better of him here.

Han-Yong scoffs at his ignorance, telling him he should have been paying more attention in the team meetings. It turns out Han-Yong has been working with the Control Bureau all this time and warns Tae-Sul that he’s surrounded. Unfortunately he lets his guard down as Seo-Jin shows and stabs him with a syringe in the neck.

Seo-Hae is all alone, as Eddie Kim follows her through the house. Thankfully, Tae-San grabs her and yanks the girl into a nearby room as Eddie scrambles for all his security and workers to try and track her down.

Alone, Tae-San tells Seo-Hae to stay away from Tae-Sul. He knows who she is and warns that he’ll kill her if she continues. When Seo-Hae leaves the room, she rushes out the complex… but finds herself surrounded by the Control Bureau. Outside, she’s shot in the leg by Hyun-Ki with his sniper.

With her locked in his sights, he whispers goodbye as Seo-Hae hits the EMP and saves her skin. Only temporarily though, given the lights eventually come back on and she’s surrounded.

Sun comes racing in with his flashy sports car though and whisks her away. Hwang Hyun-Seung tells his men not to shoot as they need to check the license plate, essentially allowing them to get away with Seo-Hae.

When Tae-Sul awakens, he finds himself in his office with Eddie Kim and Seo-Jin. Only, apparently he’s only just been shot and he’s gone back in time to the moments after being hit at the conference. Specifically, August 19th. Tae-Sul doesn’t trust anyone or anything around him and charges out the hospital. Or, well, he’s in the process of doing so until he’s captured and stuck with a syringe.

Tae-Sul eventually goes for an MRI which shows damage in the frontal lobe. After this assessment, he’s finally taken back to his apartment where Eddie makes him an iced banana smoothie. He even gives him a couple of tranquilizers too.

Tae-Sul starts to believe this new reality as Eddie eventually leaves. When he does, Tae-Sul mopes about the place while suffering from a nosebleed. It’s pretty suspect to be honest, especially when Seo-Jin shows up and offers him more pills. Unfortunately those pills aren’t there to help him as we find out that all of this is actually an elaborate ploy to have Tae-Sul believe that it’s actually August 19th.

The group are after the key, and as we jump back we see all of this set-up to make Tae-Sul believe he’s in the past.

Eventually Tae-Sul sees the truth and awakens to find Seo-Jin standing over him, asking again about the key. However, alongside that is the EMP charge and a picture of him and Seo-Hae, with the words “I don’t want to get married either” scrawled on the back.

Tae-Sul hits the EMP charge and scrambles out his apartment. Seo-Jin refuses to call the authorities and uses her own private guards to try and track him down. She implores Eddie to continue following orders when he questions her, as Tae-Sul scrambles away to safety.

Thankfully Seo-Hae has his back and as he rings through to her, she encourages him to get down while she takes out the various guards. With a sniper rifle in hand, she eventually stands face to face with him. Only, a shadowy figure happens to be watching on the monitors while Tae-San is kept captive.

The Episode Review

Who is this shadowy figure? Could it be someone related to Sigma? This does seem to be the case although Sisyphus doesn’t make it initially clear how al the puzzle pieces fit together. At least not yet anyway. So far the show has done a pretty good job keeping things consistent although the elaborate plan to have Tae-Sul believes it’s the past didn’t quite work as intended.

In fact, I’m not quite sure what the whole point of this was. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to try and coerce the truth out of him using different means?

Anyway, the show does slow down slightly this week to add a bit more depth to proceedings, with Tae-San showing his face and still being alive. This almost certainly means he’s going to be integral to the plot going forward and it may well be that we receive a separate episode tackling his journey.

So far though Sisyphus has been a bit of a mixed bag and despite a strong opener, this one has just slipped back slightly. We’ll have to wait and see if this one picks up in the coming episodes. So far though, there’s definitely enough here to stick with for the long haul.