Tale Of The Nine Tailed – Episode 12 Recap & Review

Chapter 12: Catching Tails

With Ji-A’s parents returning, episode 12 of Tale of the Nine Tailed begins with a happy reunion as Ji-A learns more about what happened to her Mother and Father. Although it’s been 20 years, for them the accident only felt like yesterday.

Ji-A then phones her puppy and thanks him for bringing back her parents. As they Facetime each other, she thanks him and says goodbye.

Rang takes Yu-Ri back home and while he does, we cut back 5 years to see a flashback of him teaching her and taking the fox under his wing. He not only teaches her how to fight but also how to control her impulses too.

Meanwhile, the President returns home just as the Imoogi rings and tells him to head inside. There, he’ll reveal what his fate is. Hae-Ryong is understandably spooked over this revelation, and decides against this and hurries away.

Ji-A somehow communicates with Imoogi in her dream later that evening. He tells her they’re connected but right now it’s unclear exactly how.

The next day she relays this dream to Yeon in his car. She contemplates whether there’s something dark and sinister hidden inside her but Yeon simply holds her hand and changes the subject. That subject is something far more scary – dinner with Ji-A’s parents.

Before that though, he heads out and meets Jae-Hwan and Sae-Rom, briefing them and telling the pair to look up everything they can about the Imoogi. He wants to find its weakness to fight the spirit head-on.

Later that evening, Yeon gets dressed up and prepares to meet Ji-A’s parents. He even comes with a small gift… a brand new car.

Yeon struggles with small talk though and despite being told to be honest, things don’t get off to a great start. Eventually things do settle down and the dinner goes okay, prompting Yeon to admit how much he likes Ji-A.

Imoogi brings a cat to the vets and asks Shin-Joo for help. Only, given he can talk to animals he realizes from them that the man standing before him is the Imoogi.

Trembling, he does his best to tend to the kitten but when he reaches for a scalpel nearby, this evil spirit drops the façade and gets straight to the point. He questions whether Shin-Joo would make a good hostage and eventually whispers something in his ear. Quite what though, remains a secret.

Next, Imoogi heads up to the familiar restaurant and speaks to the Snail Bride. He orders whatever Yeon would have after putting the rest of the patrons to sleep. Clearly intending to rile everyone up, Imoogi then heads up and visits Yu-Ri, telling her he wants her to kill Rang.

She does exactly that, clearly hypnotized as she stabs Rang multiple times. Yu-Ri eventually comes to and apologizes for what she did, panicked as she notices Rang lying unconscious on the ground. She doesn’t know what came over her or why she did that but Yeon certainly does.

He knows that the Imoogi is the one responsible and deliberates over whether to use the ground cherries or not to bring his brother back. If he does then Yeon will be dragged into the Underworld. Unwilling to give Imoogi that satisfaction, Yeon makes the choice to catch this spirit first.

While he watches the hourglass slowly tick by – the seconds becoming minutes that Rang doesn’t have – Yu Ri tends to his wounds. Soo-Oh is there too and he shows her exactly how to fix Rang up and help him. While he does, Yu-Ri despairs and decides to use the ground cherries after all.

She snatches them up from Yeon’s hurries back to the hospital. When she makes it to his room however, all the cherries wither out and die before she can feed him.

With the TVC President dead meat, a flustered Hae-Ryong heads over to Yeon’s house and pleads with him to help. He just wanted to live… which Yeon sees straight through when he realizes the handgun he has stuck in his chest is full of primroses.

With his façade shattered, Yeon and Hae-Ryong talk plainly about his plan. He intends to kill Imoogi but in order to do that, Hae-Ryong pays particular attention to the ritual back on the island during those early episodes of the season.

While they talk, Ji-A’s colleagues look into the old tales surrounding the Imoogi. It appears as if this spirit hates horse blood.

With this knowledge secured, Imoogi makes his move and possesses both Jae-Hwon and Sae Rom, going on to video call with Ji-A and show her the rooftop they stand precariously on. They’re under his spell now and it looks like there’s no escape.

The only solution for Ji-A though is to head out for dinner with him – dressed in a black suit that he’s sent in a parcel. While she entertains his company, in secret she conspires with Yeon to track him down.

As they sit together, Imoogi reveals that they have more in common than she realizes. It turns out Imoogi used to be a human before being turned evil too.Ji-A figures him out and believes he just wants to be loved.

However, he turns the tables and tells Ji-A that he’s going to kill everyone she knows, leading her to the middle of a park. When he asks how she feels about him, she admits that her love is tied up with Yeon. The smile disappears from his face completely.

Just then, Yeon dives in and confronts Imoogi. He doesn’t account for Shin-Joo thwarting his plans, managing to save the hostages thanks to his superior scent and preventing certain doom.

Yeon does his best to start the ritual, with horse blood, water, his powers and the sacrificial blood of Ji-A combining in a bid to banish Imoogi for good. Only… Yeon’ got everything all wrong. It turns out Imoogi has been split in half with half of it possessing Ji-A. Now that he’s awaken the spirit, Ji-A’s face shows snakeskin as she chuckles, “Long time no see, Yeon.”

The Episode Review

What a twist at the end! To be fair it’s been coming for a while with the whole Imoogi split angle but it’s no less shocking to see it play out here.

Yeon is now faced with a very difficult decision going forward and it’ll be interesting to see exactly how this plays out next week.

The preview seems to hint that we could be in for another heartbreaking finish to this Korean drama but right now that’s just guesswork and may not hold any weight.

For now though, the show does a great job building up our characters for an epic clash to come. The ending certainly seems to hint at this and the next episode is definitely going to be one you won’t want to miss!