Recap Korean Drama "The Uncanny Counter" Season 1 Episode 8

Aug 24, 2022

Episode 8 of The Uncanny Counter begins moments after Mun and the Counters suffer their car accident. All the spirits in the Immigration Office find themselves experiencing whiplash on the back of this accident. As our Counters pull themselves out the wreckage, Chang-Gyu takes off before he can take a beating at Mo-Tak’s hands.

After saving themselves, Ha-Na races up to confront Song, knocking her uncle down who happens to be possessed by a spirit. Make-Ok and Mun manage to convince her against seriously hurting Song, instead allowing the latter to take the spirit out of him.

Mun joins Wigen in the Afterlife where they greet a 27 year old Seung-Woo who’s just shown up. Here, we learn more about his past including how he got mixed up with Taesin and began working there.

It had only been a month until the beatings begun and that subsequently ended with him choked out by his own name tag in the bathroom. Thankfully he’s not alone in the afterlife as his Grandmother shows up and encourages him to join her. There’s shades of Grim Reaper’s room in Goblin here as the emotional reunion sees Seung-Woo finally given a good send-off after being unceremoniously choked out.

After this touching goodbye, Mun and the others head out with Jang-Mul, staying put in the car while Ha-Na speaks to the woman Song was schmoozing with in the previous episode. Eventually she manages to get hold of Seung-Woo’s employee tag, which is bloodied and kept in a clear bag.

On her way out the door, she hears that Dan-O and Dan-Bi have been adopted and found a new home. Thankfully there’s a glimmer of happiness in the midst of all this.

Ha-Na heads outside and back in the car, ready to go for dinner. She requests fried eggs which happen to have connotations with the past as she sits with Ha-Yeong, weeping and apologizing for surviving alone. This, as we soon see, is all a memory as it seems like this is her sister.

Despite awakening on a golf course, Song is arrested for Seung-Woo’s murder and taken away by police. Justice has at least been served, with news spreading across Korea and everyone seeing how heinous this guy is.

With the case wrapped up, the Counters turn their attention to the reservoir linked with their case involving Mun’s Father and Mo-Tak. Not long after, Jang-Mul confirms a tracker was stuck on their car, prompting Mo-Tak to hijack their new ride and race off to Taesin. He’s determined to confront Hang-Gyu.

Given he’s meddling in human affairs, Kim Gi-Ran from the Spirit world communicates with Mo-Tak and warns that he could have his rights as a Counter taken away if he’s not careful. Only, he’s not alone. Ha-Na too is using her powers on humans, prompting Gi-Ran to confront Wigen and ask to be reincarnated.

Meanwhile, Mo-Tak makes it into Hang-Gyo’s office after leaving a trail of knocked-out bodies in his wake. He warns Hang-Gyo that he’ll find Yeong-Nim’s body even if it means draining the reservoir. As he leaves the room, Chang-Gyu stays behind and talks about Mo-Tak’s freakish strength and ability to survive the fall. Tellingly, Hang-Gyo also mentions that the reservoir isn’t real, hinting that this may be a red herring.

Mun heads back to visit Ju-Yeon and Ung-Min who both suss out the site Yeong-Nim may well be buried. At the same time, police officers rally and begin a manhunt for Cheong-Shin. When the Counters see this, they realize they need to get to him before the police do as it could get ugly.

Having deciphered the numbers in the notebook, Mun and the Counters race off to their location while Jeong-Yeong rallies the troops and starts organizing her team to tracking Cheong-Shin down.

Mo-Tak leads the team down to the site where they find evidence of illegal dumping and contaminated groundwater. It’s quite the shocking find and one that they intend to use as evidence later on down the line. For now though, they head back home and contemplate their next move.

While out on patrol, Jeong-Yeong receives a call of a possible suspect matching Cheong-Shin’s description. She races off to investigate but it turns out that address happens to be Mun’s road. While Mun pays his respects to his parents, laying flowers out on the highway, Cheong-Shin stirs in the shadows and eventually shows up before Mun.

The Episode Review

With a cat and mouse game ensuing with Cheong-Shin, The Uncanny Counter bows out its latest episode with quite the cliffhanger as this thug finally reveals himself.

Most of the episode preoccupies itself with fleshing out the different supporting characters though, with more context given to Song and his ties with Ha-Na’s past.

For the most part, this episode does well to build up each of the characters – especially Ha-Na who manages to get retribution without resorting to the same insidious tactics Song himself was using. However, it remains to be seen what’s going to happen with the spirit office, especially if Gi-Ran winds up reincarnated.