Bulgasal: Immortal Souls season 1, episode 3 recap

This recap of Bulgasal: Immortal Souls season 1, episode 3 contains spoilers.

Now in its second week of airing, Bulgasal: Immortal Souls is starting to flesh out characters, develop the plot, and fill in some of the important blanks. With more questions arising though, the early excitement is still very much present.

Bulgasal: Immortal Souls season 1, episode 3 recap

We open with a refresher of the last episode’s events; Min Sang-un apologizing to her sister, and wandering over to the door Bulgasal finds himself at. The pursuing immortal being strains to break in, tearing the lock clean off, but by the time he enters the home, Sang-un has completely fled. Confused, he searches the living quarters trying to find his assumed enemy, but when he runs to the stairs after presuming she has left through a hole in the wall, the police stick a pin in his attempts at a pursuit. He is in an off-limits, soon to be demolished property after all, and there were reports of a suspicious man in the area.

Thanks to a conveniently placed window, Bulgasal does manage to escape his impromptu interrogation, but instead of finding Sang-un (who he does almost catch a glimpse of in the taxi she has departed in), he stays put to escape the view of the officers who presumably want to question him further. It flashes back to the day the man technically known as Hwal murdered Sang-un’s sister and mother, and he wonders if it was the same person who was in the house he just visited (it was). On the other side of the coin, Sang-un laments the fact she doesn’t quite yet know how to kill Bulgasal and feels solemn over the fact she was at fault for his appearance in the first place, haunted by a recollection she has of her younger sister Si-ho’s moment of clarity when they were still children.

Fast forward and we see Hwal returning to his remote home, picking up numerous burner phones to check up on, and instruct, his roster of private detectives in the bid to track down the woman he seeks. He then stares into the old drawing of his foe, remembering his quest to kill her and force her into solitude. Meanwhile, Sang-un tries to remember her late sister’s instructions on how to ensure Bulgasal’s death, remembering something Sang-yeon had mentioned about a sword that killed her 600 years ago. In time, she also remembers the shaking tremors of her hand too, and that it means she recognizes monsters from the past just like her sister (in this instance, the past-life reincarnation is staring at her at a bus stop, and is the bus driver she and her twin met some 15 years ago). After a chase, Sang-un hears that there are more monsters seeking her, but she emphatically delivers a mission statement of sorts that she will not die until she has killed Bulgasal.

As it turns out, Hwal isn’t just seeking Sang-un. He also wants to track the reincarnated monsters, who still live as criminals in the present, believing they will lead him to her. Consequently, he tracks down a wealthy serial killer after receiving intel, probing for information about the soul he owns but cannot sense. However, Hwal manages to get his own information through an encounter with a bobble, before he goes to his private investigator, gifts him two gold bars, and tells him to look for Sang-un in a place with “lots of detergent.” The PI wonders why this 15 year-long interest has persisted and is swiftly told that the reason is atonement.

Despite accepting the payment, the private investigator looks to outsource his client’s case to someone else, who turns out to be Hwal’s reincarnated father Kwon Ho-yeol. Ho-yeol’s curiosity is piqued by the case, and he abandons his usual respect for confidentiality in a bid to find out who is requesting such a task. He recognizes Sang-un from his time as a policeman, and it seems that he is desperate to track down his formerly adopted son.

Continuing, soon Hwal releases a captured student from the rich man’s car, tracks down Sang-un’s place of work, and successfully questions the laundrette manager to find out who she is (although there she goes by Hyeon-ju). He would have found her there and then too, had it not been for a case of mistaken identity.

But that’s not all, another missed opportunity goes by after, unbeknownst to himself, he helps Sang-un with her work. Hwal does realise the error of his ways after recalling that she was wearing the same bobble he kept from the old house, though, and quickly turns his car around to try and track the woman who has eluded him all this time. However, it’s the former bus driver who finds her first, ending up stabbed by Sang-un before Hwal intervenes in the old monster’s quest for revenge.

Hwal, after turning into the monstrous Bulgasal and attempting to kill the reincarnated man, turns and recognizes Sang-un, internally stating he has “finally found” the person he has looked for over a 600-year stretch. He clenches his knife, remembering the grudge he holds, but when his face is touched, memories flit to that of his infatuation with the mysterious woman in the olden days, and he finds himself instantly curious. Before he can receive any answers, Si-ho arrives, questioning Hwal’s identity, while he recognizes her as the reincarnation of his deceased wife. Just like that, the episode fades out.

You can stream Bulgasal: Immortal Souls season 1, episode 3 exclusively on Netflix.