Death's Game (2023) K Drama Episode 4

Episode 4 of Death’s Game starts at the mystery crime scene and then goes to the infant Yee-jae crying at the restaurant. The baby’s mother comforts the baby, apologising to the rest of the people in the restaurant for the disturbance.

After leaving, the mother screams agitatedly in the car, angry that the baby keeps bothering him, much to Yee-jae’s surprise. When they arrive at the house, the mother throws the baby violently onto the seat, making Yee-jae wonder about his current situation.

A man Yee-jae assumes to be the baby’s father seems friendly enough, but soon after, he turns evil as he starts feeding him expired food and shouts at the baby when he spits out the food. Making things worse, the mother begins smoking inside the house, but fortunately, the police show up.

The police officer and the woman are from child protective custody, were informed by the pediatric hospital of a possible child abuse situation, and have come to follow up. Yee-jae’s joy is immediately short-lived when the police officer and the child protective officer have to leave since the baby’s father is a child protective officer. The only way Yee-jae can try to get the police officer’s attention is through crying, which only makes the mother even more furious. 

She blames the baby for all the misfortunes she has suffered ever since the baby was born, and his short-lived life ends when the mother strangles the baby to Death with a pillow. Death put Yee-jae in the baby’s body for a reason. While Yee-jae took his life for granted by flippantly choosing Death over life, some people do not even get to live long enough to have a choice. Yee-jae is eager to get to his next life, and Death grants his wish. 

He finds himself outside the station, where he puts the money in a locker and has 15 minutes left to get his money before it is confiscated. Yee-jae cares about nothing else as he runs into the building and gets to his locker just in time. He finally sees his new body in a mirror and is happy about the good looks and the soothing voice.

Yee-jae is now Jang Gun-u, a good-looking man who easily gets both men and women to fall for him. He is a model and is rich. Yee-jae starts contemplating how he will die this time when someone calls him out to a party. Rather than stay home stressing about Death, Yee-jae decides to party.

The host of the party is Taekang CEO Park Tae-u. Yee-jae thinks he looks familiar but does not think about it and decides to continue partying hard. The next morning, Jang Gun-u’s brother wakes him up, reminding him that Jang-u had promised to look after the café while he went to the States for a week. He thinks of working for a day and leaving when Jang Gun-u’s brother goes to the States. 

The day holds surprises for Yee-jae and starts with Lee Ji-su arriving at the café. As she walks into the café, Yee-jae flashes back to their life as his boyfriend, their first meeting to when he decided to leave her. He asks Gun-u’s older brother if she comes to the café often, and he informs him that she does every day until closing. He also tells him that she is an author. 

Yee-jae searches up her name, and an article about when she won a contest comes up. She had said that the person she first thought about after winning a contest was her boyfriend since he believed in her the most. Flashbacks of Yee-jae encouraging Ji-su as she writes pop into his head. He remembers the envelope she gave him before their break up and learns it was the prize money. 

Yee-jae rushes out to the library to get Ji-su’s book, and while reading it, he discovers that some of the situations are similar to their time together. Back at the café, a young girl runs to Ji-su and calls her auntie, accompanied by a man and a woman. Yee-jae realises that the person he broke up with her over was Ji-su’s older brother. He decides to keep the café open while Gun-u’s brother is away for Ji-su’s sake. 

Yee-jae gets close to Ji-su by telling her his story about reincarnation as a fictional character and starts looking forward to their story time every day. An accident happens one night after Yee-jae sends Ji-su off, and he overhears some customers saying the victim came to the café often. Thinking it might be Ji-su, Yee-jae rushes to the crime scene and is even more convinced when he sees a smashed red umbrella similar to the one he gave her at the scene. 

Fortunately, Ji-su is unharmed, and she opens up about what she went through on the day Yee-jae decided to commit suicide. The next day, Ji-su visits Yee-jae, and for the first time, Yee-jae in Gun-u’s body visits his resting place and runs into his mother. He hears his mother crying in the restroom, and he breaks down. 

Later, he sends his mother some money, posing as Yee-jae’s friend, and he supposedly dies when a sign falls from the hinges, knocking him dead, but it turns out to be just a dream.

After his next meeting with Ji-su, he offers to walk her home, reminiscing about the times he walked hand in hand with Ji-su. Yee-jae realises that the reason why people are afraid of Death is that there is no tomorrow. He, therefore, decides to tell her about his girlfriend, whom he has dated for seven years. 

Yee-jae confesses that he is the man in the stories he has been telling her, and his first life was as Choi Yee-jae. Just as Ji-su struggles to grasp the impossible situation, a red car intentionally speeds in their direction, crushing them both. Ji-su dies immediately, but Yee-jae takes time and realises that one person has been a constant in all his previous deaths: Taekang CEO Park Tae-u, who realises Jang Gun-u is not dead, so he kills him. 

Yee-jae wakes up as usual at the gates to hell. He is devastated and angry. He vows to kill Park Tae-u, but first, he decides to get rid of Death. He runs to the table, takes the gun and shoots. 

The Episode Review

This episode was about taking out our tissues and experiencing emotional turmoil. What happened to Ji-su and Yee-jae’s family after his Death has been a mystery, and this episode opened up the wounds the viewers had forgotten.

Death had told him that he had forgotten about the bereaved family, and he seems to have forgotten about his and in this episode, he was forced to experience the pain. Even more unbearable is the fact that his decision to get close to Ji-su might have led to her Death.

The episode adds a new twist to the story: who is Park Tae-u, and why is he involved in some way in all his previous deaths?