Early Access: Mystic Pop-Up Bar E2

E2. This episode, Show feels more like Hotel Del Luna than in E1, in the sense that the person helped this episode is dead. And, I gotta say, I think Mystic does it better. The CGI and overall visuals may be a hair less polished than Hotel, but the richness of heart wins hands down. I felt myself choking up a few times this episode, and that's not something I felt much in Hotel - at least, not with the ghosts of the week.

Hwang Jung Eum looks almost unreal as Wol Joo, in that she has an almost plasticky appearance, probably due in equal part to cosmetic procedure and a lot of thick makeup, BUT, it works. She's not supposed to be human anyway, and if a 500-year-old ghost is going to be glamorous, she might as well rock it to the maximum. For the record, I do think Hwang Jung Eum looks fantastic as Wol Joo, even with the slight plasticky feel.

This episode, we are still in set-up, since Kang Bae spends the episode uncertain of whether to sign the contract with Wol Joo. He's an earnest young man who wants to be sure he's doing the right thing by people, which I think is sweet. Also, when it's revealed at the end of the episode that he'd hesitated to sign the contract because he's so used to failing at things and therefore he was pretty sure he'd fail (and have to pay the price of possibly having his powers magnified), I felt rather sorry for him. I'd like Kang Bae to grow in self-confidence over the course of our story. 

The backstory of this episode's customer, Ms. Andong, is heartbreaking. A petty fit of jealousy, fueling recklessly spoken drunken words, resulted in 3 ruined lives, and it's no wonder that Ms. Andong has been living in guilt and torment all these years. It's a very compelling situation, because on the one hand, I feel sorry for her, for having lived a miserable life being crushed by the weight of her guilt, but on the other hand, I feel even more sorry for the lives that she ruined with her reckless actions. She's done everything in her power to atone for her wrongdoing - bringing up the child and punishing herself along the way - so I feel like she's done all she can, and yet, it still feels insufficient, because someone died, and someone lost her parents, and someone lost his family, because of her. It's very poignant, because this is the kind of conundrum we tend to face as humans; sometimes we do things that we deeply regret, but we just can't take it back, no matter how much we want to, and we have to find a way to co-exist with the guilt.

Wol Joo's reluctance to help Ms. Andong feels very personal as well, and for good reason. She'd ended up dying herself, because of baseless malicious rumors, so it's perfectly understandable that this touches a raw nerve for her, and she'd rather not complete her mission, than help someone who ruined other lives with lies. 

But when she decides to accept Kang Bae's proposed deal and help Ms. Andong, I appreciate that Wol Joo goes all in to help her, and even protectively shields Ms. Andong's ghost from a reluctantly cooperative Reaper.

The CGI around Ko Dong Gil's deep subconscious mind, is nicely done. It may not be the most polished and shiny, but it's solid and believable, and feels suited to this drama world. I also liked the levity Show injects into how our trio tries to guess the combination to open the door to Ko Dong Gil's deepest memories - and fails, twice. Manager Gwi being afraid of the tickles, thus resulting in them losing his phone to the abyss below, was quite amusing as well.

I really liked the visual of how Show presents the locked memories, as a black and white image, frozen in time like a photograph. I thought it was quite perfect, that the way Wol Joo unlocks it, is to poof some color into the air with a wave of her hand, and as the color saturates the image, the people in the memory come back to life. Very nicely done.

It's quite moving that after Ms. Andong's death, neither Eun Su nor her dad seem to hold a grudge against her. Instead, Dad speaks of her with compassion, and Eun Su cries and thanks her and addresses her as Mom, and says that she misses her. It's a testament to how much Ms. Andong poured herself into raising Eun Su. She may have been battling her own demons while she'd raised Eun Su, but Eun Su felt her motherly love and protection, and that's what she leaves behind, after her death.

The scene of Ms. Andong meeting Sun Hwa in the afterlife is beautiful and poignant. Sun Hwa looks ethereal and lovely in a hanbok, and the way she greets Ms. Andong with gratitude instead of anger, is so gracious. She doesn't say a thing about Ms. Andong's lies which led to her death; she only thanks Ms. Andong for raising Eun Su well. Ms. Andong can only sob on her knees, and Sun Hwa, tearing up as well, kneels down to comfort her. What a touching, poignant note on which to leave them, I thought.

Manager Gwi seeking out Kang Bae for a round of basketball is such a fatherly thing to do, and I love that he gives Kang Bae credit for his part in their successful mission. Although Kang Bae feels that he didn't do much, and that Manager Gwi and Wol Joo did all the work, Manager Gwi graciously acknowledges that without Kang Bae, they could've even have started. I tend to agree with Manager Gwi; the three of them do make a pretty great team.

Yum Hye Ran is perfect as Queen Yeomra; she looks imposing, majestic and witheringly badass. Perfect casting, I think. Also, I'm curious as to what was written on the scroll, that had caused Wol Joo to change her mind and accept her punishment instead of opting to be sent to the hell of extinction. I'm guessing that it has something to do with the prince whom she'd loved.