Legend of The Blue Sea - Episode 8 Summary

As Chung (played by Jun Ji Hyun) takes a dip in the pool, we hear the merman’s earlier warning to her: that no human would be able to accept a mermaid for what she is, including the man she loves. Joon Jae (played by Lee Min Ho) returns to the house unexpectedly, and his attention is drawn to the pool area. As he approaches, he meets Chung’s eye just as she surfaces, and they both freeze in surprise.

She frantically orders him to stop right there, and Joon Jae does, out of shock more than anything. He glimpses her bare skin, and when she yells at him to look away, he immediately turns, flustered. To his ears it sounds like she’s afraid he’ll try something, and he belatedly objects to her forceful reaction.

Once she’s safely two-legged again, Chung comes into view, and asks Joon Jae about the question he’d been about to ask when she cut him off. He has to think to recall it, and then starts in on the scolding about how she can’t be so careless when she’s living in a house full of men. Chung retorts that he shouldn’t be bursting in suddenly, and that actually chastens him until he remembers that this is his house. Joon Jae argues, “So who should be the careful one—you or me?” Chung: “You.”

He says she should count herself lucky that it was him who came in and not anybody else, although when she asks why that would be lucky, he has no answer. Then he orders her to hurry and change, and she points out that he has to leave first. Joon Jae returns to the car without even collecting the phone he went back for, figuring he’ll make do without it. After giving his partners the side-eye, he makes a house announcement that everybody must ring the doorbell before entering, including himself. Nam Doo asks why, and Joon Jae pulls the “my house, my rules” line. Then he wonders why it’s so warm today and fans himself, only to have Nam Doo say the temperature is subzero.

Chung shares her close call with her merman friend Jung Hoon, who cautions her to be careful, warning that Joon Jae will have a lot of questions in response to her suspicious behavior. She says that he’s already hounding her about what happened in Spain, and Jung Hoon insists that she can’t let him know: No mermaid coming outs!

Jung Hoon notes that it’s a good thing that lies exist in the human world; mermaid telepathy makes it a non-issue in their world. To illustrate his point, he points to a store ad, which reads, “Free phones! 100%! The shopowner is crazy!” She’s ready to take the sign literally, but Jung-hoon says that the shopowner isn’t crazy; the ad is just telling you to come and spend your money. Same goes for store employees who pile on the flattery; they don’t mean it, they just want you to buy.

Most important of all, he cautions her not to be taken in by the words “I love you,” which are common and spoken insincerely. To demonstrate, he calls a service number on his phone, and the call service agent answers, “I love you, Customer.” Chung asks how to know when somebody is lying, and Jung-hoon gives her clues: evading eye contact, stammering, touching an ear or lips.

All these are on full display as Joon Jae protests that he’s totally not preoccupied with Chung these days, stammering before touching his lip and looking away. Nam Doo points out how strange it is for Joon Jae to be controlling about a woman’s clothing, and Joon Jae argues that he does the same for Nam Doo and Tae Oh. He makes it a point to fuss over Tae Oh’s clothing now, but neither partner is buying his denials.

Joon Jae gets dropped off near Shi Ah’s museum preservation center, and his unexpected visit brightens her mood. He asks about the vase she’d been working on and the details discovered on it. Shi Ah confirms that it belonged to a mayor named Kim Dam Ryung and shows him the drawing of the mermaid kissing a man. She points out the peculiarity of a Joseon-era artifact depicting someone dressed in the modern style, as though he peered into the future. As Joon Jae looks closer at the image, a memory flashes through his mind: him sinking in the sea in Spain, a mermaid swimming toward him, their underwater kiss.

Next, Joon Jae visits a man he calls “professor” and explains that he’s been feeling strange lately, and dreaming strange dreams. When he saw the picture on the vase, he was struck with the absurd thought that it was himself. He explains that it’s different from the little bits of memory erased in hypnosis—this is like only one type of memory has been erased. Joon Jae asks the professor if this is possible. The man replies that there are types of amnesia that only affect a particular person or topic.

Joon Jae is put under hypnosis, and the professor directs him to return to the very first moment regarding “that person.” Snippets of scenes flash through his mind, from Dam Ryung’s Joseon life: wearing the jade bracelet, jumping into a swordfight, leading a woman by the hand. The woman turns, and he sees her clearly: She has Chung’s face. (Sae Wa’s face. Same difference.)

Joon Jae jerks awake, breathing hard in his shock. His professor prods him to share what he’s seen, and why do I feel like he’s a little too eager to get that answer? Joon Jae recalls something the professor had told him before: that what he sees could be images from his unconscious, or a false world that he created himself. He decides the latter is what he’s seeing: “If that’s not it…” He sighs heavily, not even able to finish that thought.

Joon Jae returns home that evening, and the sight of Chung brings back that memory of Sae Wa. Noting that she’s dressed to leave the house, he adopts an indifferent attitude, as though he’s not at all interested in where she’s going. Then he casually informs her of their brand-new house curfew, warning that she’ll be locked out if she returns after 8 o’clock.

Nam Doo points out that he’s essentially telling her not to leave, since it’s already 7:30. Joon Jae insists that he doesn’t care who she’s meeting, or whether it’s a man or a woman, as long as Chung is home by curfew. Nam Doo knocks aside a magazine and sees the civil servant exam study guide underneath it. Joon Jae makes a grab for it, but Nam Doo has too much fun needling him about it to let it drop. Joon Jae says he was just using it for research purposes, which is about as convincing as mud. Chung decides she’d rather go out tomorrow than tonight, and Joon Jae hides his smile.

After he leaves, Nam Doo asks Chung where she was headed, and she holds up her black plastic bag and says she was going to trade it for money and give it all to Joon Jae. Nam Doo laughs until he peers in the bag and pulls out a pearl in wonder, asking how she got them. She replies, “I worked hard and made them.” Cut to a flashback of Chung crying in front of the television, watching her former co-star Park Hae Jin (in another of this PD’s previous dramas, Doctor Stranger), which she follows with That Winter, the Wind Blows.

Nam Doo marvels at her mysterious talent, and asks if he can keep one pearl. Chung snatches the bag from him, but then she gets distracted by the announcement from the talking rice cooker that delicious rice is ready. While she congratulates the cooker on a job well done, Nam Doo hides one pilfered pearl behind his back.

The next day, Chung and merman Jung Hoon are out for a stroll when he doubles over clutching his chest. Oh noes! I was hoping the terminal illness would take much longer to kick in, but he’s definitely looking worse for wear. Jung Hoo feels that his heart is almost at its end, and just to make it through the day, he has to spend hours in the water.

Chung asks if there’s any cure and he says the woman he loves can return to him—but she won’t, because she married someone else. Chung urges him to return to the sea rather than staying here foolishly, but Jung-hoo turns that around on her: “Why come here and take his mean treatment, wondering when he’ll love you back?” He urges her to return to the ocean, because it’s not too late for her.

“If I go back, how would I live, missing him?” she asks sadly. “That’s why I’m here, dying away,” he sighs. “Even if I went back, living wouldn’t be living. I could die here, or go there and live as though dead. It’s all the same.” Chung starts to cry, and he reminds her to catch her tears.

Jung Hoon wishes the instinct of a mermaid to follow their beloved human to land could be erased, and says that he’ll be reborn as a human and date women left and right. It’s too mean for a heart to only beat for one person, he says bitterly. Chung asks how long her heart will be able to hang on. He doesn’t know, but given that he was dumped two months ago, he figures she can watch what happens to him. “Don’t look at me with such pity,” he tells her. “This is your future.”

Detective Hong and his partner stake out Joon Jae’s neighborhood, hoping for a return of murderer Dae Young. The partner grumbles that he wouldn’t return to the scene of the crime, but Detective Hong suspects that Dae Young is looking for something (he’d noticed the doors marked with an X) and will be back. Of course, the moment Dae Young literally walks by, even bumping their car accidentally, they totally miss him in his maintenance worker disguise. 

Joon Jae makes himself a cup of tea, which makes him think of the friendly ajusshi (Manager Nam) who gave it to him. He can’t shake how the man in his dream, bloodied and unconscious and in Joseon-era clothing, had Manager Nam’s face. Joon Jae tries calling Manager Nam, but still gets the message that the phone is off. He texts instead, asking for a return call.

Outside, Dae Young assumes the guise of a worker on break, and nearly gets into a scene with a drunk man who flicks away a cigarette butt. The drunkard senses something in Dae Young that warns him not to escalate the confrontation, and he picks up his cigarette butt and hurries off. Dae Young has Manager Nam’s phone, and he reads Joon Jae’s text, then types back a reply. Joon Jae’s relieved to hear back, and agrees to meet tomorrow evening.

Chung lies awake in bed, thinking of her hardening heart and how much time she has left. She gets out of bed with purpose and asks Joon Jae if she can come down, ignoring his “no” to join him. Saying that she needs an answer to something quickly, she asks point-blank, “When do you think you’ll come to like me?” She knows he doesn’t like her now, but asks if he has any plans to in the future.

Joon Jae says no readily, and she urges him to think about it carefully, looking at him with a hopeful expression on her face. In his usual brusque tone, he asks if she’s really that dumb, reiterating that he has absolutely no plans to love her. Chung says she’ll give him time, to which he replies that a person doesn’t start liking someone just because you give them a few days. He calls it the hardest thing in the world.

“The easiest thing in the world is for a person to disappoint someone,” he says. “Even if you like someone just by appearances, you’ll be disappointed quickly—that’s what people do. There’s no love that overcomes disappointment. So a person liking another person is the hardest thing.” 

She contradicts him readily: “For me, loving is the easiest thing to do. Even if I try not to, I love anyway. Even if I wanted to feel disappointment, it doesn’t happen. Love wins all.”

She says this in an earnest voice with a serious face, and he stares at her for long moments. She asks him to let her know if he ever makes a plan to like her, and heads back up to her room. The conversation affects both of them, who spend the night tossing and turning.

Shi Ah sits with her sister-in-law Jin Joo, a bit impressed at how Jin Joo sucks up to her mother-in-law with a fierce, sugar-coated vengeance. Jin Joo offers relationship advice, saying that men are helpless against the woman who treats his mother well, pointing to her husband as proof.

Shi Ah initially scoffs, but her interest is piqued at Jin Joo’s advice to get in good with the mother of the man she likes. She notes that he’s never talked about his family, but Jin Joo tells her to ply him with liquor, then ask. Just then, Joon Jae’s mother serves them coffee, and Shi Ah literally spits her mouthful back out because it’s different from her usual brand. Joon Jae’s mother takes back the coffee dutifully, but adds a last word about how it’s dandy to think of the laborers in far-flung locales, “But it’s also important to show manners for the people who live with you.”

Shi Ah bristles, asking if the housekeeper is daring to teach her something. Mom replies, “I didn’t do it meaning to teach you, but if you learned something, that’s fortunate.” Heh, I love dryly sassy Mom. Shi Ah gapes at the nerve, while Jin Joo turns her back to what’s important: Getting friendly with Joon Jae’s mother. I am so going to enjoy watching the irony hammer fall on Shi Ah’s head.

Shi Ah goes straight to Nam Doo for information, but he’s reluctant to talk about Joon Jae’s mom, knowing Joon Jae would flip his lid. She pressures him anyway, so Nam Doo offers a deal, wanting to know Joon Jae asked her about the vase.

Shi Ah shows him the mermaid drawing, and Nam Doo tries to put the pieces together, sensing there’s a deeper connection regarding Dam Ryung, the vase, and the jade bracelet. Nam Doo tells Shi Ah that all he knows about Joon Jae’s mother is that they were separated when he was ten, and she’s done such a good job keeping her tracks hidden that she’s difficult to find.

Joon Jae’s mother looks longingly at her old family photo—as does Joon Jae’s chaebol father, who’s still hoping to find him. He calls his lawyer about notarizing his will, asking if it’s possible to confer an inheritance with just a national identity number, without the person directly being there. The lawyer confirms it, then turns to tell Joon Jae’s stepmom about it; he’s clearly under her direction.

As Shi Ah heads out after her chat with Nam Doo, she finds Chung waiting to talk with her. Chung’s demeanor is huffy, but her question surprises Shi Ah: How to make a man fall for her? She insists that Shi Ah knows how, pointing out how coy Shi Ah gets whenever she’s around Joon Jae. And Chung is running out of time, and needs Joon Jae to like her back quickly.

Getting a gleam in her eye, Shi Ah explains that Joon Jae’s quite easy, and that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Living together is actually counterproductive, and could make him dislike her. For a second it looks like Chung believes her, but then she jeers at Shi Ah’s lies, having picked up on all her cues: She avoided eye contact and touched her ear and hair. “I’ve figured out how to deal with you,” Chung says. “I can just do the opposite of what you said, right?”

Then the instant Joon Jae walks into the room, Chung does as good as her promise and sticks to his side, following him around the room. She asks if Joon Jae has made a plan to like her yet. He protests that it’s only been a day, and she offers more time. She does insist, though, on accompanying him to the library, and Joon Jae initially protests. But hearing that Tae Oh will be home all day while Nam Doo is out, he concedes that Chung could benefit from a trip to the library. (Tae Oh shoots him a knowing look, because he has ears and isn’t an idiot.)

At the library, Joon Jae sits Chung down at a table and tells her to read while he finds what he needs. When she talks in her normal loud voice, he leans in close to tell her to talk quietly, and she looooves that. She leans into him to whisper happily, “I like the library!” He laughs at her cute reaction.

Just then, a young woman taps Joon Jae to hand him a note, and he puffs up a little, anticipating a flirty come-on—only to open it to read a request to talk outside or move seats, because they’re being too loud. Chung asks what the note reads, and Joon Jae lies that it says the girl likes him and thinks he’s handsome. Chung bolts up instantly to do some damage, and Joon Jae has to drag her back to her seat (which she enjoys, since that requires him putting his arms around her).

Joon Jae looks up the archives for information on Dam Ryung, and reads the basic facts of his life: birth, marriage, wife’s death, appointment to a town on Gangwon province—and, later that year, his death at the age of 27.

As that sinks in, suddenly we transition to Dam Ryung’s side of the scene—he jolts awake as though the library scene was his dream. He’s keeping watch over unconscious Sae Wa, and admits to the doctor that constant nightmares have made him afraid of falling asleep, where he’s almost unable to distinguish between what’s real and what’s a dream. He thinks back to the part of his dream where Joon Jae reads of his death, exactly twenty days from now. The doctor tells him that he can tell Sae Wa isn’t an ordinary person from her pulse, and that if she truly is a mermaid, she will not be able to recover here. He says that the best way to save her life is to return her to the sea.

Dam Ryung takes the jade bracelet off his wrist and puts it around Sae Wa’s, which transitions us back to the library as Joon Jae inspects it. He notes that Dam Ryung died at the same age that he is now.

Chung sits in the children’s section, reading The Little Mermaid. A little boy walks by and finds a pearl on the ground, just as Chung comes the end of the story, when the little mermaid threw herself into the sea and turned into bubbles.

Manager Nam lies unconscious in the hospital, with his wife and Chi Hyun keeping vigil. Chi Hyun doesn’t believe that Manager Nam would drink and drive, and the wife agrees that there’s something off about the accident, but has been unable to find much about it. She looked into her husband’s cell phone records, but it showed nothing odd leading up to the accident. Chi Hyun asks to take the records, offering to ask his officer friends for help investigating the accident. The wife cries in gratitude, having been afraid to press the issue after Chi-hyun’s mother advised her not to—and that immediately strikes Chi-hyun as suspicious.

As Joon Jae leaves the library with Chung, he gets a text from “Manager Nam” (Dae Young) confirming their meeting tonight. Chung declines his offer to take her home, saying that she’s meeting someone, and Joon Jae guesses it’s her male civil servant friend and pettishly reminds her of curfew time.

Stepmom drops in on Chairman Heo at the office, suggesting dinner just as he’s heading out. He starts to explain that he has plans, but his attorney calls to reschedule, freeing him up for dinner after all. Stepmom plays it off like a happy coincidence, though we all know that she’s Up to No Good.

Chung visits the coast guard office looking for her friend, and hears from the guard on duty that Jung-hoon went into cardiac arrest a few days ago after making a rescue. He was rushed to the hospital, but was dead on arrival. Another woman bursts into the office then (cameo by Jung Yumi), identifying herself as the Kim Hye Jin who’d been called about the same matter. The guard hands her a small box, explaining that it was in Jung Hoon’s locker with her name and number.

Hye Jin opens it to find a ring adorned with a single pink pearl—the tear of happiness. Jung Hoon had told Chung he’d only cried one tear of happiness while living here, and she relays that message: “He said he cried in happiness because of you. He must have wanted to leave those good times here.”

Hye Jin says she didn’t know he had a friend he could share all his thoughts with, when he’d been so full of secrets with her. Chung asks if she left because of his secrets, and Hye-jin replies, “Secrets are made because we’re different from each other, so that we don’t reveal what makes us different. And those secrets ultimately lead to both of us being hurt—both the person who hides, and the person who’s lied to. So if we’re too different, in the end, we can’t go together.”

Chung asks if that’s really true, and Hye Jin says that you’ll hurt each other: “Can you go together, with love as the reason?” Chung says that Jung Hoon didn’t regret it, even if his love caused his heart to harden and die. She’d wondered why he hadn’t erased Hye Jin’s memory when she found out, and he’d replied that there were too many good times to erase, and that he’ wanted those memories of love to be a strength to Hye Jin for a long time.

Tears fall from Hye Jin’s eyes, and she hurriedly excuses herself before she starts sobbing, holding the pearl ring to her heart. And then, Chung winces to feel her own heart tighten in pain.

Joon Jae arrives at the appointed meeting area, but upon seeing that it’s a darkened, empty building, he retrieves a small handgun and tucks it away before making a call. He heads inside the abandoned building, and his memory flashes back to being tailed on the highway and having a strange man posing as an officer show up at his gate. On alert, he makes his way along the corridor and pauses to call Manager Nam. The answering ringtone sounds nearby, and he approaches slowly, eyes peeled as he rounds the corner.

He relaxes when he finds the room empty, though he jumps when his phone rings again. It’s Chung, calling from the river, and she doesn’t sound good. Joon Jae doesn’t notice a shadowy figure behind him and tells Chung he’ll be right over. Then he turns and sees Dae Young standing there menacingly, and asks if he’s the one who followed him and impersonated a cop. Moreover, where is Ajusshi?

He wants quick answers, but Dae Young isn’t inclined to oblige and twirls a hammer in his hand. In a sudden lunge, he swings at Joon Jae’s head, which Joon Jae manages to dodge, countering by using his gun to spray something into Dae Young’s eyes. Joon Jae kicks away the hammer, then pulls out his lighter and holds up the flame to Dae Young’s face—and that triggers a flash of Lord Yang.

Joon Jae is so stunned that he backs off, giving Dae Young the opportunity to attack, going after Joon Jae with full force. Joon Jae takes a beating, and gets a chair broken over his back that sends him crashing down. Joon Jae struggles to get up an defend himself, only to have Dae Young ready to go at him with a screwdriver.

Thankfully, they’re interrupted by flashing headlights and honking cars. Dae Young scampers off first, and Joon Jae makes his way outside in difficulty, where he finds a wall of cars.

A flashback reveals that he’d called Nam Doo before heading in, having been plagued with an uneasy feeling. Nam Doo had been too far to make it quickly but offered to call the police, and Joon Jae had countered that he’d get arrested too. Instead, he’d instructed him to call nearby taxis to the location. Pretty nifty thinking, since the taxis saved his life, and he offers an additional exorbitant rate to be driven to the Han River as quickly as possible.

By the water, Chung thinks of Kim Hye Jin’s words and wonders if she really can’t be with Joon Jae for the long haul. After urging his driver to speed, Joon Jae arrives at the park by the river and searches for Chung, holding his side and hobbling in pain. Chung recalls Jung Hoon’s urging to return to the ocean, and forlornly looks out at the water, wondering if she should go. Which is when Joon Jae’s voice calls out from behind her: “Go where?”

He’s full of concern over her condition, while she takes one look at his battered face and is worried for him. It would almost be funny, the way they ignore each other’s concern about themselves to worry about each other, but it’s too earnest a moment.

Chung sheds a tear as she tells him, in an echo of Hye Jin’s words about Jung-hoon, “I can’t tell you anything. I’m full of secrets. But you being injured or hurt because of my secrets—I don’t want that. I don’t want to make you sad in the end, either.”

He asks what she means to do, then, and she says, “I’ll go back. I’ll go to where I was, before it’s too late.”

That seems to deliver a blow to Joon Jae, who reminds her of that plan to like her that she wanted so much. He tells her, “I’ve made it, that plan. So don’t go.”

Epilogue.

Joseon. Dam Ryung sits at Sae Wa’s bedside, holding her hand, and she finally stirs awake.

He helps her sit up, and she tells him with tearful eyes, “I will return to the sea. I know well that that is the way for both of us to live. Like the first time we parted, when I alone had the memories and you did not, we should have lived in our own worlds that way. I will not come anymore. So you must forget it all too.”

Dam Ryung asks why she erased his memory the first time they parted, and she answers that if she hadn’t, he would have felt constant pain.

He replies, “If you hadn’t erased them, I could have felt constant longing. This time, do not erase them. You mustn’t erase them. These recollections, these memories—although they hurt, I will carry them through the end. They are mine.”

He leans in slowly, and kisses her.

Personal Thought:

Ohmy, finally the confession, the kiss! Thankfully Joon Jae is pretty smart in figuring out the links. I bet on the next episode, he would be able to link the dots and that's where the magical things would exist. It's such a sad story between Jung Hoon and Hye Jin, yet I think that story was needed for the progress between Chung and Joon Jae.

With a plan of him being next to her, what would happen once he knows that Chung is a mermaid? What is the lifespan for a mermaid? I am kinda worried that they come from excatlly different environmet and that would make things hard for them. Many people have commented that this time, in the future, both Joon Jae and Chung should get a happiness they really wanted, but some part of me thinks that it will be better if the story goes along the same way like a classical fairy tale and that's where the love would be eternal. Hmm, wondering what would happen later on?