Nine Episode 19: Just Hang Up

Nine: Episode 19

It's April 24, 2013 (the supposed wedding day) at 8:00 pm. Dr. Han sits in his office looking at Sun-woo's phone, which also reads 8:00. How did he get it? He listens to the first message, which was Sun-woo saying the incense is mocking him and he is stuck in the past. The second one is an update that he is still stuck and asking how everything turned out. We see Sun-woo's watch, which says 12:40. Then Choi's car rams him.

We move to the same time in 2013; the wedding is late and people are starting to murmer. Sun-woo's friend from work arrives with word that he is missing. Dr. Han figures since Sun-woo went to see Choi that his car should be where the hospital used to be. (So now the hospital is gone.) He finds the car, and sitting on the curb next to it is a disheveled Dr. Choi. The wealthy, well-dressed version of him surrounded by lawyers doesn't exist. He turns and without a word drives away in his delivery van.

We return to Sun-woo, who has passed out but now comes to again, still in the rain. His watch reads 2:21. He leaves a third message to say he is badly injured but can't imagine his life will end here. He tries to move his leg and the side of the phone booth but can't.

In 2013 Min-young waits in her wedding dress until her dad comes to tell her it's too late and time to go home. The police check out Sun-woo's car, a tow-truck comes to take it away, and the reporter friend gives the small box from the front seat to Dr. Han. It's the wedding rings. Dr. Han sits on the curb waiting, until it grows dark. Jung-woo, who has just flown in, calls to ask the news. Shouldn't he have returned when the incense burned out? It has been over six hours. So 6:30. Han reports that Choi had been with the car. He was very changed, but must have been up to something, otherwise why was he there? Jung-woo says he knows where Choi would be. Has he been keeping tabs on him in this timeline?

Choi is in his shop drinking soju from a plastic cup when Jung-woo walks in, looking younger and thinner, actually. Maybe it's the haircut. [15:00] Choi gripes that the brothers ruined his life, and then admits that Sun-woo is dead and he did it. He cackles that it was a perfect crime, and tells Jun-woo to look up the accident in the police records. A distraught Jung-woo asks him why he couldn't have been a better man when he had a second chance at life. He has prayed for twenty years that Choi would reform, because Choi is his father. What an awful pair they are, he killed his father, and Choi killed his father's son. Choi is stunned too, and disbelieving, until he remembers what he had done to Jung-woo's mom.

Dr. Han and Jung-woo meet up at the police station, as the cops look through records of traffic accidents in 1993.

Dr. Choi drives drunkenly off to see Jung-woo's mom. He's been keeping tabs on her, too, because he knows what clinic she's in. He cries at her that she had told him the child wasn't his, as security hauls him away. She sits still unresponsive.

The police find the hit-and-run phone booth accident. A witness had heard a loud noise about 1:00 and seen a car, but thought the noise was thunder. The victim was found about 8:00 and when the police arrived at 8:30, he was already dead. They had pictures of the accident scene and of his work ID badge, which they thought was fake. Reading the file, Jung-woo and Dr. Han are devastated.

Min-young, reflected in a mirror, tries to call Sun-woo, with no answer. Her mom says the brothers are alike.

Choi calls Jung-woo, apologetic and wanting to meet, but Jung-woo hangs up on him. As he fiddles with his phone, he swerves and goes off the road, and that's the end of him. For this timeline, anyway.

1993 Choi is pacing his office when Jung-woo calls from the hospital. Choi threatens him again and asks if he is at the airport. Jung-woo just says, “yes,” and hangs up. So, the same response both times.

So now we are up to 8:00 pm again, with Dr. Han in his office. An hour before, the police officer had said there was an odd item belonging to the victim that had been saved in an envelope. When he opened it, it turned out to be a modern cell phone. The officer thought it was a mix-up somehow, but Dr. Han knew what it was and kept it. He put a new battery in it and played the messages. [37:50] The fourth one says he will think of a way to get back. We see him pitifully trying to attract attention by banging on the metal rail. In the next view it is dark, and still raining. He can hardly move, but he leaves a fifth message. “I think I know why I can't go back. The incense stick was me. When I lit it, I became the fruit of knowledge for other's lives.” We see a montage of events from the drama, including Jung-woo talking to the crooked cop. “It was an opportunity and a curse. It was me. I used all the incense sticks; my role is over. I won't ever be able to go back. I don't feel depressed; I won't have to feel guilty for playing God. It was never in my power, but His. For being a true friend to me in every life, thank you.” He passes out again.

Min-young in the mirror is listening to her mother guessing that he must have died because no one can find him. Suddenly she gets a new memory. When a child (exactly twenty years earlier) she had come upon a man lying in a crumpled phone booth. She recognized him as the man who had taken her mother to the hospital. He told her that if someday she saw a man who looked like him, to stay away because he would ruin her life. Adult Min-young bawls as she remembers making a pinky promise. He dies; his hand falls; his watch reads 8:07.

Sun-woo said he was the fruit of knowledge, referring to the fruit from the tree of knowledge that Adam ate. In both cases it not only gave forbidden knowledge but brought death as well. If his role is over, would he have died even without being hit by the car? He at least has no role with the people of the present. But you notice that his watch said 8:07 and no one else's went past 8:00. It has been suggested that his timeline extinguished when he died, because no one is shown after that.

This episode all happens on the same day as the last one, is still the timeline where the brothers had gone to the police, Jung-woo and Choi had gone to jail, and Min-young had an American father. Sun-woo had died in 1993 and his cellphone had been in the police station for twenty years. Him being the incense stick is an oddity. I suppose that means his life was connected to it and using it used up his life.

Running count – time travels: 14; remaining incense sticks: 0; Timelines: Past7 Present6.

Nine Episode 18: Phone Booth in the Rain

Nine: Episode 18

We start up again on April 24, 1993 at 11:59 am when the wedding guests are realizing that the groom is missing. We have a brief look at Dr. Han in 2013 pacing the floor in his office and then taking his turn at being bug-eyed as he is hit with new-timeline memories at 12:00. Suddenly he is standing outside the church with his family. He has to ask his wife if it is Sun-woo's wedding. She thinks he is being silly because, of course.

We revisit 2013 with Min-young at the mortuary watching everything disappear in smoke. Then she realizes she is in a bridal gown with a bouquet of slightly wilted alstroemeria. Her mother and Boston lawyer stepfather, Joo Sung-hoon, are greeting the guests. Mom looks completely happy this time around and Step-dad looks like a nice guy (he gives Min-young a thumbs up) so why didn't we regret losing him before?

Now we return to 2013 Dr. Choi with the disappearing golf club and aides. He finds himself a little the worse for wear in a small crowded medical supply shop, with his hair standing straight up, wearing a plaid shirt and sweater instead of a suit. He remembers Sun-woo saying he would take away twenty years of glory. He does a pretty good godzilla imitation kicking his new delivery van.

Jump to 1993 to see what happened to Jung-woo. He comes out the church door, turns around to see Shi-ah, and walks away in the rain. And... he is standing in his white coat holding a syringe in a small clinic. There are signs in Korean, Chinese, and English; one reads: International Medical Mission. [11:00] He flashes back through a lifetime of memories to that same day in 1993. He had found his younger brother, injured, at a hospital, with Reporter Oh, and offered to tell them everything.

Poor 1993 Yoo-jin is having it rough being jilted at the altar. She cries and says he's done it to her before and she can't stand it. She is going to go away. Luckily she already has a passport and airline tickets for America.

Reporter Oh tells the whole story on air about the accidental death, Choi threatening Jung-woo, getting a gang member to help him, and bribing two police officers to cover it up. Sitting in the back of a cop car, Choi complains bitterly to Evil Minion that he wanted the witness dealt with, not a high school student; and Minion allows as how he was told to kill the kid.

When the police take hyung to visit Mom she is outside on the patio. Sun-woo watches through the window and refuses to talk to him.

During court procedings Choi tries browbeating hyung again, but he isn't afraid anymore. Hyung is awarded the ownership of the hospital and sentenced to three years; Choi gets four and a half. Sometime later Sun-woo calms down and goes to see hyung in jail to show him his college acceptance. He muses, “He told me I would understand later,” and when hyung questions who, he says, “It's a secret.” Standing in his mission clinic reviewing his memories, adult Jung-woo realizes what that meant, and smiles. [19:15] He asks another doctor what time it is in Korea and is told noon. That's when the wedding is, and he goes out to call his brother. He must be several time-zones away if it is hard to keep track of Korean time.

An ecstatic Dr. Han comes into the back room where our bride Min-young is waiting. He assures her that this is real and Sun-woo has changed things back. She looks rather blank and stunned. I thought she would look happy, but maybe she is ajusting to new memories.

And we see some. It's February 2013. Sun-woo is trying to sleep in Min-young's apartment and she is pestering him to propose. What? Didn't they say they got married that time in Nepal? They didn't get married yet this time around? He smiles to himself after she leaves. Jerk. Wait a minute. Isn't this the Sun-woo we knew in Episode 1 before he got serious? He is still in bed when her mother walks in a little later and surprises him. She doesn't know who he is, and neither does the Boston lawyer stepfather who comes in with the suitcases. Ha. Sun-woo is embarassed and not so arrogant anymore. He hides in the bathroom until Min-young comes in and steamrolls him into saying they are engaged. He looks crestfallen, but seems pretty happy later with her in the wedding pictures.

We see Jung-woo call from outside his clinic. There is a Chinese flag, so they must be in western China if they are several time zones away. He says he can't get ahold of Sun-woo. He calls himself Daddy and wishes her happy, and she bawls. Aww, she really loved him as a dad. He says he can hardly believe he is alive, and he is not unhappy in this life. They both obviously remember the other timeline.

We see the interview with Sun-woo and Min-young's parents when they first met. Stepdad is the big teddybear and Mom is the disciplinarian. Mom figures out that Sun-woo is the brother of the Jung-woo she had known. He says, “yes, how did you know?” She tells him her name and asks if he remembers her. We see his expression change as he does. Mom asks if he remembers Shi-ah; that Min-young had her name changed. He lookes lost. She asks if Jung-woo had married and he says no.

This is a weird scene. Why doesn't he remember? Memory is supposed to be a residual. Everyone else who was in the know before still knows. Dr. Han definitely does. We see him trying to call Sun-woo, who is late to the wedding, but the phone is out of service.

Back on April 24, 1993, 11:59, Sun-woo is still waiting in the phone booth in the rain. The timer on his watch hits zero and he still doesn't time-travel. We watch as 2013 Dr. Choi's assistants and car, and finally he himself, go up in smoke. The incense burns out and the ash stump falls over.  [40:15]  A little box appears on the front seat and then the incense holder and case disappear altogether. (That seems pretty final. The magic is extinct.) After ten minutes Sun-woo smiles wryly at the cosmic joke on him and records a message on his phone telling Dr. Han he is stuck in the past.

We pay a visit to Dr. Choi on April 24, 1993 at 12:30. He's still taped to his chair, but the custodian hears him yelling and gets him loose. Driving through the rain, he notices Sun-woo in the phone booth down an alley. 2013 Choi cheers as his 1993 self rams the car right into that phone booth. A man pokes his head out of an upstairs window wondering what that noise was, so Choi drives away. Sun-woo slumps to the ground and sits inside the wreckage as his blood runs and his eyes close.

What a mess. What are we left with? It is significant that the incense case disappeared, because that means

If Past7 is a timeline where hyung became a doctor and wasn't unhappy, he never went wandering around or looked for magic incense. Young Sun-woo's life would be different: he saw a stranger who said he was himself as a grown up. He figured out (from the pills) that he was going to get cancer and prevented it, and went to college while his brother was in jail. He never went to Nepal because he didn't have to claim his brother's body, he never got the little diary because it had never been written, and never had any incense sticks. If he kept the memory of alternate timelines, he would have aquired it in December 2012, when he originally found out, but it looks like he didn't.

One artifact of time-travel is that people don't remember what happened in the past of the altered timeline until the twenty-year anniversary rolls around. Adult Sun-woo didn't remember what his teen self had been doing and had to check his diary. The Sun-woo we see meeting Min-young's parents must be that teen Sun-woo who has grown up with this alternate life. He doesn't remember things that were different in the original timeline, and may never do so unless something triggers it.

Running count – time travels: 14; remaining incense sticks: 0; Timelines: Past7, Present6.

Nine Episode 17: Weddings

Nine: Episode 17

April 24, 1993, 11:00 am. It is raining as people walk into a church. According to the Dramafever subtitles the announcement board in front reads Groom: Park Sun-woo, Bride: Kim Yoo-jin. That is wrong though; it's Park Jung-woo, the older brother. Young-hoon (young Dr. Han) greets hyung and Shi-ah (young Min-young). Hyung has sent Sun-woo to look for Yoo-jin's passport. Evil Minion, pretending to be from the high school, calls the priest to find out where Sun-woo is and heads for Yoo-jin's store.

Young Sun-woo can't find the passport (Yoo-jin finds it in her bag) and heads back to the church. Evil Minion pulls up to him, confirms his identity, and attacks; but he gets away and locks himself into the store.

Adult Sun-woo stops his car in traffic as he remembers getting stabbed, and registers scars on his arm and shoulder. Then Choi's goons arrive and there is a short car chase until Sun-woo looses them by pulling a fast U-turn on a busy street. When Chief Oh calls he asks him something we don't see. Then he calls Min-young to tell her he is going to try to stop the wedding. No one is happy; her mother has become a widow twice. The incense thing has never turned out well, but he still has to try as long as there is hope. He asks her permission and she agrees. He sets his watch, lights the incense, and disappears. [fourteenth time travel 17:38]

Evil Minion knocks on the glass door while young Sun-woo tries the phone, which unfortunately has been disconnected.

1993 Dr. Choi is finishing paperwork in his hospital office before going to the wedding when in walks adult Sun-woo with a baseball bat. As he recognises him as the witness from the night Dad died, 2013 Dr. Bug-eyes in his hospital gown remembers it. He now knows where Sun-woo is and gets dressed. He leaves the hospital, followed by reporters but not apparently the police. (I thought he was a prisoner?)

Adult Sun-woo ties up Dr. Bug-eyes with duct tape and finds his address book. He calls Evil Minion and orders Dr. B. to find out where his young self is. Luckily Evil Minion's car phone rings just as he is getting a hammer to break the door with. He reveals the store location and Sun-woo is so busy with his memory update that he misses the chance to have Dr. B. countermand the hit order. But he does say that it will be worse for Dr. B to lose twenty years of glory than to get killed. And he walks out.

Just as young Sun-woo is wondering if he is safe, Evil Minion pops in front of the door with the keys he had dropped in his panic. He backs away and throws things at the attacker, but just as Minion makes an impossible-to-dodge swing with the hammer, there is a commercial. No, adult Sun-woo shows up and takes over, and it is hammer vs. baseball bat. When Minion gets knocked out, Sun-woo gives his younger self an assignment. We don't hear what that is either.

Sun-woo sends his younger self in a taxi to the police station with another copy of the videotape, saying it is about the hospital fire, and that his father dying was an accident. He promises him he will have a good life and be happy. Another call comes to the priest's office for Jung-woo, and adult Sun-woo tells him he is the witness and has given the tape to his brother. Jung-woo can either marry and run away or stay and pay for his crime. [37:48] Sun-woo looks at his watch; there are five more seconds. He waits in the phone booth in the rain for a time jump.

April 24, 2013, 11:55 am. Dr. Choi and his aides pull up in front of the hospital and see Sun-woo's car with incense still burning inside. He tries to break in.

Sun-woo's friend calls Chief Oh with the news that Choi is on the loose. Chief Oh remembers Sun-woo asking him an hour ago where he had been on that day in 1993 and what his pager number was. And had added that he had the most integrity of anyone he knew. Flashback to April 24, 1993, 11:55 am. Then-reporter Oh with long hair and horn-rim glasses is arguing with the police chief about covering up a case. He says he had watched something. Is it the same case? Adult Sun-woo had told younger self to go to Reporter Oh for help, and he was often at the police station. As Reporter Oh is leaving, a clerk tells him someone wants to talk to him.

Back at the church the wedding is beginning. Jung-woo comes out of the priest's office and hesitates before the chapel doors.

At the police station, young Sun-woo introduces himself to Reporter Oh. 

Dr. Choi rifles his trunk for a golf club and is swinging it at Sun-woo's car window, when it disappears with a dribble of smoke. As Dr. Bug-eyes stares at it, his aides disappear in a similar way, as does his car.

Adult Dr. Han paces nervously when he is suddenly stopped by a new memory change. Adult Min-young registers something as well. The wedding guests start looking for the groom, but only young Shi-ah checks the front door. Young Jung-woo gives her a look and then continues walking away.

At 12:00 Adult Min-young sees the mourners disappear, then the photo of her dad, and then her mother. She realizes she is standing outside the church in a wedding dress. The announcement board reads Groom: Park Sun-woo, Bride: Joo Min-young. She sees her mother in a lavender hanbok with a smile on her face. Lucky her, at least she knows what is going on. Everyone else has been dropped into a different timeline without noticing.

Is it a new timeline or just the original one again? The first big change was the wedding between Sun-woo's brother and Min-young's mom, and that has been put straight. However, this time around Jung-woo and Choi are going to be caught by the police. So it's a new timeline. 

I'm pretty proud of Sun-woo for asking Min-young's permission to change things and to let her know what he was up to. He cares about what she thinks, which is a change from the beginning of the show when he was blowing her off. The sad thing is, he was trying to make his brother happy but it didn't turn out.

Jung-woo wanted to make Yoo-jin happy, but that didn't turn out either. Now there are three versions of their story. (1) They broke up and never got together. (2) They broke up but got together again and married and then he suicided. (3) They broke up, got together again, and he jilted her at the wedding. He made her unhappy each time.

Running count – time travels: 14; remaining incense sticks: 0; Timelines: Past7, Present6.

Nine Episode 16: Choi Gets a Turn

Nine: Episode 16

Sun-woo sits in a church trying to pray, when Dr. Han enters with the news that his brother, Jung-woo, has passed away. Sun-woo stalks out in a fury intending to kill Choi, but Dr. Han won't let him. Dr. Han takes the incense back into the chapel and decides to grind it to powder so it can't be used by anyone. He declares that it's not Dr. Choi's fault; the incense has not made anyone happy; hyung would have been better off dying in the Himalayas than going the way he did. He holds up the incense stick, saying if it is evil, the Lord will help them get rid of it. To his amazement, it dissolves with time-travel style smoke along with the case. (The smoke is a hint, guys.)

We jump to the next day, April 24, 2013, at 10:00 am; with Dr. Choi riding in a car and his aide reporting that Sun-woo had been at the mortuary all night. People are paying their respects to the family there, and a funeral is planned for the next day, so it will be hard to catch him alone. The aide has Sun-woo's phone record (where do they get these things?) showing a text half an hour before the knife attack, saying he is going somewhere and if things work out, “It will all be back in place in 30 minutes.” And a reply from Dr. Han wondering if Choi knew about the incense.

His boss, Chief Oh,  comes to the mortuary with news that Choi is going to prison. They don't have banks of flowers and displays of fruit the way you usually see; there is a bouquet and a Catholic crucifix and statue. But they still have food for the mourners.

Dr. Han calls Sun-woo out. He has a theory that neither the incense nor Jung-woo were of this world; they belonged to the past. He thinks the incense disappeared because Jung-woo died. Sun-woo thinks back to Choi saying in the hospital that if he could go back in time all he needed to do is kill one high school kid, and says it's more likely that a person interfered than that God did. He thinks it disappeared because of a time change. Flashback of someone taking the incense out of the closet, juxtaposed with it disappearing out of Dr. Han's hand. Yup, that was it!

Min-young stands in front of the altar remembering Jung-woo calling and thanking her for choosing him as her father. She tells Sun-woo that she had thought she could stick it out and things would get better, but she didn't think her father would do this. She asks him to change things but he can't because he's lost his last incense stick, and she dissolves into tears. She must have really loved Jung-woo as her father, because we never saw her mourn her Boston lawyer step-father.

Meanwhile back at the court house, three judges enter and begin to read Dr. Choi's indictment.

April 24, 1993, 10:00 am. The housekeeper comes to the gate [21:10] and hands the incense case to the same policeman who took Jung-woo's evidence. We see she had gone into young Sun-woo's room while he lay there asleep, and taken it from the closet. Argh! Why didn't he wake up? The cop claims he needs it for the investigation and asks when Jung-woo is going to America. She tells him it will be later that day, after the - subtitles say graduation, I think it should be wedding.

Back to Dr. Choi in the dock. He suddenly goes bug-eyed again as he is flooded with new memories. Exactly twenty years ago to the minute, the policeman is handing him the incense case, saying he doesn't know how that video tape was made. The only odd thing he could find was this incense, so he brought it. It had fingerprints of the younger son, but is the only thing that could have belonged to that witness. Present Dr. Choi immediately connects it with the text from Dr. Han about incense. Past Dr. Choi opens the case to find two incense sticks. There is also a note written by young Sun-woo, “It's not mine, so it must be yours. I will keep it well for the next twenty years.”

Present Choi realizes that the incense was from the future and collapses as he tries to remember where he had stashed it – right as the judge is giving him ten years. Sun-woo's friend from work, who was at court, calls to tell him that the trial has been adjourned. In the ambulance, alone with his aide, Choi suddenly opens his eyes, tells the aide where to find the incense case, and fakes unconsciousness again. (Why aren't any EMTs there, hey?)

Sun-woo remembers Choi standing outside the ICU claiming that he could find out everything, even in prison. He figures that Choi has suddenly remembered that he somehow has the incense, and heads out to the hospital to try to stop him.

The aide finds the incense in the same 92-2000 box in the archives that the CCTV picture had been in. He brings it to the hospital room and Choi chases everyone out. Here's the thing. Young Sun-woo had a case with two sticks saved in his closet. As an adult he used one of them. But Choi has a case that was taken in the past when it still had two sticks. That is why he opens the case and sees two. But when he lights one of them it burns down instantly without any time travel. That's because Sun-woo had already used it in episode 12, when he took the videotape to young hyung and got stabbed. In my opinion, since the cop got the incense back, it should not have been in the closet all those years, and Sun-woo shouldn't have gotten ahold of it.  But the writers decided that since the witness was a time-traveler who shouldn't have been there, the cop looking for more information about him counted as a timeline change.

Dr. Choi gingerly lights the last stick and watches it burn normally for a few seconds, when it suddenly disappears. [thirteenth time travel 34:00] He looks around to see that his hospital room has changed and there is another patient in the bed. We see split-screen that the incense stick is lying on a table in the present-day hospital room. Choi sees a calendar on the wall that confirms it is April 1993. He calls his office, gets Evil Minion's number from the nurse, and sends him to kill young Sun-woo.

Adult Sun-woo runs through the hospital and beats up the security men to get in to see Choi, without being noticeably bothered by the wound in his side. (It's been two weeks.) He sees the burning incense stick and snuffs it out, which causes Choi to be sucked back into the present. Sun-woo tucks the incense into his jacket as security hustles him out. Choi smiles, satisfied.

Sun-woo runs back to his car for the old diary and finds April 24, 1993 was his brother's wedding. The entry says that he was busy in the morning and then ran an errand for his brother and missed most of the wedding, which was at noon. Neither he nor Dr. Han can remember what went on that day since it is the alternate timeline, and they only remember altered events as they happen.

Young Sun-woo is walking slowly down an alley in the rain when Evil Minion drives up and talks to him. Adult Sun-woo is driving when he sees a scar growing up his arm and suddenly remembers being attacked, but not where. Young Sun-woo backs away from Evil Minion with a big slash on his arm.

Here we have two conflicting timelines. (1) The incense sits in the closet until Sun-woo gets it in episode 12. (2) The cop gets it and it sits in storage until Choi's aide gets it in episode 16.  The time-travel trip Sun-woo made with the first stick could have been negated since he didn't have it in the new timeline. He wouldn't have taken the videotape to hyung and he wouldn't have gotten stabbed. But the stick just dissolves for Choi because it has already been used. So this is a residual effect, like keeping injuries and objects you had before the timeline changed. Once the incense has been used, it has been used.

Running count – time travels: 13; remaining incense sticks: most of 1; Timelines: Past6, Present5.

Nine Episode 15: Dr. Bug-eyes

Nine: Episode 15

April 23, 2013. The hospital calls Dr. Han because Sun-woo isn't showing up for treatment. He visits Sun-woo and finds him passed out on the couch and the house littered with liquor bottles. He tells Sun-woo to pull himself together and reveals that Min-young and her family have gone on vacation to Japan.

But Yoo-jin calls to check on Sun-woo and says that hyung did not go with them. Dr. Han phones the hospital; hyung's office door is locked and the phone is ringing inside. They break in and find hyung has OD'd, collapsed at his desk. When Dr. Han arrives they are piggybacking (Oh really? Don't they have gurneys?) hyung to the ER. Sun-woo finds a suicide note and flashes back to a visit from hyung a few days before, when hung had wanted all of them to run off to America. Sun-woo had replied that Min-young had made the call. She had chosen to keep Hyung as her Dad. [17:14]

Sun-woo sits exhausted outside the OR, and Dr. Han calls Min-young to tell her to return to Korea.

Cops pull up in front of a gas station owned by Evil Minion and arrest him for stabbing Sun-woo on April 11. The surgeon had found his broken-off fingernail in the wound and since he had a criminal record his DNA was on file. The cops also discover that Dr. Choi had been wiring money to the Minion family. Evil Minion is flabbergasted to be accused of stabbing someone he didn't know, and also that the cops have his knife from 20 years ago. He calls Dr. Choi, who starts to think about that CCTV picture from 20 years ago. Thinking that man could really be Sun-woo makes him bug-eyed.

Sun-woo tears out every page from his old diary that talks about time travel and flushes them. (Why were they at the hospital?) He tells Dr. Han that Choi will figure it out soon. He wants to get rid of the last incense stick.

Meantime, Dr. Bug-eye remembers Sun-woo saying he would have to go and see who killed his father. He had asked how, and Sun-woo had said, “It's easier than you think.” [32:43] He finds out that hyung is in the ICU and goes to see him. Sun-woo is sitting outside with the suicide letter in which hyung writes that his biological father is Choi and he's nothing but a source of unhappiness to everyone.

Choi comes back out and accuses hyung of being unstable and weak. He adds that 20 years ago a man was stabbed and disappeared, but is sitting in front of him right now. "Is it like a time machine?" he asks. Sun-woo answers, "yes."  Choi leaves, and in a shiny silver car to match his shiny silver suit, instructs his aide to search through everything he can about Sun-woo and find out what he's been doing since December. Sun-woo remains outside the ICU staring at his last incense stick until Min-young walks up. They stare at each other, tears rolling down their faces.

Is Dr. Choi worse now than in the original timeline? Originally he had manipulated hung and hired an arsonist. (Where do you get an arsonist from?) This time around they have a witness to deal with, and athough Choi didn't want any killing at first, the minion disagreed and now it doesn't seem to bother him. Apart from that, Choi still has the same crooked business deals going on.

Running count – time travels: 12; remaining incense sticks: 1; Timelines: Past6, Present4.

Nine Episode 14: Consequences

Nine: Episode 14

Sun-woo wakes up in the hospital to his phone ringing. Since it is the nurse calling about Min-young, he knows the timeline hasn't changed. He calls hyung to find they were thwarted by Choi, who had bribed the police. We see hyung turning in the evidence tape and going home to see young Sun-woo and Young-hoon (with doughnut all over his face!) And then Choi showing up to threaten hyung and destroy the tape.

Young Dr. Boyfriend gets Min-young's phone traced (how?) and finds her at Sun-woo's house with the nurse. Seeing her in a man's shirt, with her clothes cast on the floor, and the Record from the Past on the nightstand, he realizes he has been had and takes off in a taxi. Sun-woo is getting dressed and ready to leave the hospital when Young Dr. B walks in and pastes him a couple.

When Dr. and Mrs. Han meet for lunch she tries to tell him the hospital gossip about Min-young and Sun-woo. He has a cow and walks out. He doesn't explain to her; there's no way she could understand him.

Sun-woo shows up for work about a week later to find that nasty rumors have been circulating. Min-young cancelled her wedding and has been apologizing and returning gifts. Chief Oh tries to prevent them from resigning, so they meet in a glassed-in conference room to talk. She tells him he's big news and can't quit, so she will instead. Dr. Han has told her about the incense sticks, and she has figured out he was the man who took her mom to the hospital when she was little. She doesn't want the last incense stick used because her Dad might disappear; she just wants to stay as family. (Do all Korean companies keep file boxes on hand for employees to use when they quit?)

The people around them are taking it hard. Min-young's mom wants answers which she can't give without implicating Sun-woo. Their boss feels betrayed and let down. Sun-woo cries and stares into space. Min-young cries and then puts on a cheerful face for her mother. At this point, Sun-woo, Dr. Han, and Min-young all remember the alternate timelines. Dr. Choi got a new memory in episode 11 but doesn't realize it is from an altered timeline. No new time travels or changes this episode.

Running count – time travels: 12; remaining incense sticks: 1; Timelines: Past6, Present4. 

Nine Episode 13: New Memories

Nine Episode 13:

We pick up on April 10, 2013, at 10 pm with Dr. Han being nervous and hyung calling him to warn him about his new memory that 1993 Choi has a picture of Sun-woo. But Sun-woo has already set his watch for 30 minutes and lit the incense. Exactly twenty years in the past, Choi is showing the CCTV picture to hyung and saying they have to get rid of this guy.

In 1993 Sun-woo walks into Yoo-jin's record shop and young hyung recognizes him. Present day hyung cringes as he now remembers himself phoning up Choi. A suspicious Sun-woo listens in on the store extension, hears Choi telling hung to stall, and takes hyung's car keys from the counter. He finds the car and puts the VCR tape in the glove compartment; and then Evil Minion shows up and they recognize each other. A car chase ensues, but Sun-woo eludes him and finds a phone booth. He calls hyung and tells him he will never be happy [17:40] but will end his own life - December 31, 2012 according to the subtitles. (Wait. Didn't he die in the Himalayas in January that year?) As he is telling hyung about the videotape, Evil Minion opens the door and stabs him. There must be something about phone booths. As all this is happening, hung is simultaneously remembering listening to it. The fight in the phone booth is followed by another car chase, which ends on a bridge. With one minute left on his watch, Sun-woo jumps into the water, knowing he will land in his own time. [25:30]

Back in the present, his co-workers find him on the floor, wet, in a pool of blood. The news goes on without him while the staff speculate about Choi being behind it. A friend who goes in the ambulance calls hyung, who tells them to check for water in the lungs. When Dr. Han calls, Sun-woo is able to tell him that Choi knew his face and is doing different things from before.

Present-day Choi, looking through old files in a box labeled 92-2000, finds the CCTV picture of the man in the optical shop and sees that it looks like Sun-woo. [37:20]

Present-day hyung agonizes through new memories of himself talking to the minion and being afraid to confess. However, as Sun-woo is being wheeled into the OR he is able to report that his young self is heading into the police station.

As a result of Sun-woo taking his mother to an optical shop that had security cams, Dr. Choi now has his picture and is acting differently than before. Such as hiring a hit man. However, he does not remembering everything or realize there is an alternate timeline.

Running count – time travels: 12; remaining incense sticks: 1; Timelines: Past6, Present4.