My Demon Season 1 Episode 3 Recap – A moral grey area

Episode 3 of My Demon is one you shouldn’t be complacent with since it’s happy to devote half its runtime to a light-hearted and somewhat silly state of affairs before plunging into much more serious territory with the surprising death of a character. Season 1 is, thus far, full of enjoyable subversions, at least insofar as repackaging the most beloved of all K-Drama genres as something fresh-feeling, even if it isn’t entirely without niggles.

Emotional depth is coming to the fore here, though, and it’s pleasing to see that significant developments are not just cheaply played for shocks but made to matter.

Picking up from Episode 2, Gu-won saves Do-hee from the acid attack and heals himself, thus convincing her of his demonic status. She also understands the relationship between his powers and the tattoo that she now has, so she’s quick to offer him a role as her bodyguard under threat of getting the thing lasered off.

Gu-won and Do-hee visit the police after, but she remains quiet about Cha Tae-jun contacting her before he dies, so the authorities believe he killed himself. Tae-jun, you’ll recall, was the head of Mirae Group’s financial team and planned to give Do-hee some serious information, which she passes on to Madam Ju, who dismisses the concerns but starts looking into the case nonetheless.

Why does Gu-won agree to be Do-hee’s bodyguard?

Also as indicated last week, demons begin to combust when they aren’t able to make dodgy deals, and this is the fate that Gu-won is trying – and almost failing – to avoid. This is why he has little choice but to accept Do-hee’s offer to become her bodyguard. She accompanies him while he makes a new deal – a blood contract with a woman in exchange for her sick child’s life.

It’s impossible to paddle in these waters without addressing, in some way, the matter of morality, and Do-hee is a good audience POV on the matter since she immediately identifies the same thing as us – that Gu-won is preying on desperate people and exploiting their misfortunes.

A moral grey area

But there’s a welcome grey area here that lends the show and its characterizations some complexity. When Gu-won meets the girl whose life was saved, she expresses a desire to never have her parents suffer on her behalf. When Do-hee sees the girl being able to spend more time with her parents, though, she sees that in a roundabout way, Gu-won has preserved this family’s time together. It might have come at a cost, but is one outcome objectively preferable to the other?

Building a relationship on these foundations is a bit tricky, though, but not to worry. Gu-won opens up a little all the same, revealing to Do-hee that he was once a human before he was chosen to be a demon, though he recalls nothing of his human life.

Who dies in My Demon Episode 3?

The shocking death teased at the top of this recap is Madam Ju, whom Do-hee finds dead. This comes only shortly after having received a message from Ju saying that she loves Do-hee, which is understandable since she is the person who took her in and raised her as her own. And now she’s gone.

Prior to this, Madam Ju had revealed someone – who isn’t identified – who was misappropriating company funds and confronted them. The connection seems too strong to ignore. After the funeral, where Do-hee learns that Madam Ju was forming an audit team, the family is informed by Sergeant Park and Detective Lee that Madam Ju died of a heart attack caused by ingesting a medicine she was allergic to. This highly suspect cause of death only implies one thing to Do-hee, but since the entire family seems pretty happy about the outcome, she’s on her own.

Naturally, Do-hee suspects that one of the family members is the culprit. There’s an obvious connection between Madam Ju’s death and what happened to her, and since Ju’s will names Do-hee as the next Chairperson of the Mirae Group, it seems like a good thing she employed a bodyguard after all.

How does My Demon Season 1 Episode 3 end?

To retain management rights, Do-hee must marry within a year. Madam Ju’s family expect Do-hee to reject the position, but she doubles down and declares that she’s going to find the matriarch’s killer even if it means joining hands with a demon.

So, she proposes to Gu-won. Fair enough.

What did you think of My Demon Season 1 Episode 4? Let us know in the comments.

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