The Cursed Scales
After Yeon’s romantic gesture, episode 6 of Tale of the Nine Tailed begins with Ji-A seeing straight through his façade and realizing that he’s actually thinking of A-Eum. She touches his face, asking him to see her for who she is now rather than what he presumes from the past. Yeon agrees, and the two walk together discussing the forest and the festival they’re attending right now. It turns out it’s actually quite a good spot to hide given the number of people celebrating. Together, they head in to see a fortune teller. Ji-A hands over the scheduled 20 dollars he wants and decides to use an app to tell their fortune. He confirms that Ji-A was a princess in a past life but also how Yeon was a laborer. This is obviously false but he tells Yeon to bring a talisman for a more accurate reading. As they get up to leave, he mentions how it’s also been foretold that one of them will die. Meanwhile, Jae-Hwan and Sea-Rom start messaging Ji-A, urgently wanting to know exactly who Yeon is. Team Leader Choi arrives though and tells them to stop embarrassing him. He believes Yeon looks like a gigolo and quickly leaves them. It turns out Rang is also at the festival too, although he’s much more flamboyant than his brother. He’s carried across to the fortune teller who reveals his true self to Rang. The sunglasses he wears hides the brilliant whites of his eyes and Rang had clearly met this man before. He encourages the teller to reveal all, as he brandishes a bag full of all the items lost from this world. Rang counters with a suitcase full of money, but realizes that’s not enough to buy these possessions from him. Instead, the teller needs him to hand over “that which is most precious to him” Meanwhile, Yeon catches an arrow in mid-air. Attached is a letter asking him to meet at the government building. There, Yeon is confronted over his previous actions surrounding the fox at the wedding. Unfortunately this consequently sees him surrounded by soldiers. Yeon makes swift work of them though, although Ji-A admits to the governor that she’s only using Yeon to complete her contract with him. Eventually the governor and Yeon fight, with Yeon besting the mountain spirit who reveals himself as the bear. This man actually happens to be Yeon’s best friend. He knows Ji-A’s parents too and recognized them from the island. The man involved in killing her parents is actually a human and definitely not a fox. It turns out he had human branding on his head spelling out West Seoul. As further revelations come to light, she finds out that she was the actual target not her parents. In private, Yeon learns from his friend that the spirit of the dragon king is actually residing inside Ji-A – not A-Eum. This would explain her strange possessions in the past. Only, it doesn’t explain what’s going on with that strange child featuring scales… are these dragon scales perhaps? Anyway, as we briefly cut across to him, we see the boy bring a bird back to life. Meanwhile, Yeon receives a call from Rang who tells him he misses him. Well, that’s obviously not true and Yeon sees straight through this. Before they head up to meet, Yeon conducts a spell of some sort with his shoe, inscribing the word “find” on the end of it. Ji-A and Yeon then meet Rang and huddle together before the fortune teller. This time though, he shows Yeon his true face and how he’s a legit teller. It turns out Rang’s most precious belonging is his brother and in exchange for a pair of glasses, Yeon is forced to stay behind. Even worse, he’s tapped on the back and turned into smoke as he joins the teller’s possessions in his bottomless bag. It turns out this was Yeon’s plan all along and the shoes Rang’s wearing is going to bring him all the way to the man responsible for killing her parents. That’s unknown to Rang though of course, as he drives up to the TVC President’s house. This confirms that the man has something to do with the deaths. Elsewhere, Ji-A frantically decides to haggle with the teller. She decides to buy Yeon. She has less than 2 hours to make the exchange though but beforehand, heads home to find her most precious belonging. With time literally slipping away, she brings back her toy merry-go-round which has a spatter of blood on it. Realizing how much it means to her, the teller eventually decides upon a no deal. As he turns his gaze toward her though, his complexion changes. She has a special fate far beyond this. The lines on her hand have changed and she has a specific purpose. That ties in with the fox bead, which the young child at the President’s house realizes too. Eventually the teller agrees to make the trade. With Yeon safe for now, the pair share some spicy food and eventually go to bed. While Ji-A sleeps, Yeon sneaks away back to the academy where he reveals the truth to granny about what’s been going on. She warns Yeon that his obsession will be his undoing, especially given her earlier glimpse at the tea leaves. However, Yeon is insistent and shouts back at Taluipa. As the episode closes out, Ji-A has a nightmarish vision where she’s in the room with that strange child at the President’s house. She somehow communicates with the young child, who says hi. When she awakens, she happens to have scales across her neck.
The Episode Review
With a more urgent episode this time, there’s lots of action to help give this one an injection of pace. The fighting between Yeon and his best friend was really well shot and that’s backed up by a more developed story too. The revelation about Ji-A is interesting, although it was perhaps telegraphed a little as she first had the possession back on the island. This fantastical drama has been a bit of a bumpy ride so far but the central mystery and lore is enough to keep this one intriguing. That’s to say nothing of Lee Dong-Wook who’s just as charming here, matched blow for blow on-screen by Kim Beom. Unfortunately these two power-houses completely overshadow Jo Bo-Ah who does her best as Ji-A but pales by comparison. Still this drama is just starting to heat up now. What’s next for our characters? We’ll have to wait and see!
