The Bequeathed is a six-part horror-thriller from Yeon Sang-ho of Train to Busan and Hellbound fame. Our full recap of Season 1 covers all six episodes as Seo-ha grapples with the terrifying implications of an inheritance from an uncle she never knew existed.
Episode 1
Seo-ha had never met her uncle, so she’s as surprised as anyone when the police call asking her to handle the transfer of his dead body. This is the inciting incident for a whole range of bizarre plot developments that’ll occur throughout the season.
Myung-gil was poisoned by thallium. Detective Choi Sung-jun eventually pieces together that he was murdered because he refused to sell off his burial ground – which Seo-ha is entitled to – so that a lucrative construction project could occur on the land. The village chief, Sung-soo, and a collaborator named Kwang-soo conspired to get him out of the way.
At Myung-gil’s funeral, Seo-ha meets a seemingly crazy man named Young-ho, who claims to be her half-brother and equally entitled to the burial ground. The police later determine through DNA that his claims are accurate.
Seo-ha is in a loveless marriage with a deeply unpleasant guy who is thankfully murdered at the end of the episode. Just prior, Seo-ha had asked for a divorce and exposed his serial cheating, throwing him out of the car and leaving him alone. He was shot at point-blank range a little later.
Episode 2
Seo-ha suspects Young-ho of killing her husband since his body was found near the village, but he had an alibi. The police are a little distracted with talk of possible cuts, though, and in the process, we learn about the complicated history between Sung-jun and his now-superior, Park Sang-min.
Years prior, Sung-jun’s teenage son had fallen in with a group of delinquents who bullied him for being the son of a policeman. They kidnapped a cop who they believed to be Sung-jun and forced his son to stab him repeatedly, but it turned out to be Sang-min. He still walks with a cane from the injuries.
Meanwhile, Seo-ha continues to struggle with her husband’s demise, having visions of him in which Young-ho factors heavily. Mr. Kang, the private investigator she hired to prove her husband’s infidelity, overhears about her inheriting the burial ground while being questioned by the police and puts her in contact with a man trying to sell his building. He offers to make any matters slowing down her receiving the inheritance go away.
When Seo-ha returns home she finds her apartment daubed in blood, echoing shamanic, ritualistic practices.
Episode 3
Young-ho immediately confesses to having drawn on Seo-ha’s door in chicken’s blood, but he claims it was simply a shamanic talisman designed to ward off disaster after her string of recent bad luck. However, Seo-ha also recalls a hunting rifle from her childhood that would match the ballistics of the one used to murder her husband, and Young-ho bristles a little when being questioned about it, so he remains a suspect.
Seo-ha gets embroiled in a controversy when she’s exposed as the ghostwriter of Professor Kim’s new book, and he’s fuming about it. She catches up with him later and he tries it on with her, which is witnessed by Professor Han, who tries to mock her for it, so Seo-ha flips out and throws a drink in her face.
At the end of the episode, Mr. Kang snoops around Young-ho’s house under the instruction of the landlord who is trying to hustle Seo-ha’s purchase of the building. He finds a bunch of shamanic gear and is promptly shot how Jae-seok was. Young-ho remains suspect numero uno, but it seems much too obvious.
Episode 4
Young-ho is shocked to see someone has been looking around his house (which kind of flies in the face of the idea that he’s the killer.) He communes with his late father through a photograph. A note implies that Seo-ha is next on the murderer’s agenda after Mr. Kang.
Since Kang’s dead, Seo-ha can’t get in touch with him. Someone replies using his phone to lure her to an in-person meeting. Young-ho follows her to try and warn her but she mistakes his pursuit for antagonism and he’s arrested (Park had him tailed) before he can explain.
Meanwhile, Detective Choi follows up on the talisman and is held at gunpoint by a woman in a ruined temple, who is confused by the old-fashioned nature of the talisman Young-ho left on Seo-ha’s door. An older relative explains that it’s drawn all wrong and speaks to Choi as if he’s Seo-ha and Young-ho’s father.
When Mr. Kang’s body is discovered and his last few texts are between him and Seo-ha, she’s once again brought in for questioning. In the absence of any evidence to put Young-ho away, the cops aren’t doing much about him, which infuriates Seo-ha. However, they’ve got a point, since they can’t find the murder weapon in his home and his location (traced through his phone) never overlapped with Kang’s on the night he was killed.
Choi gets a call explaining that DNA evidence from Jae-seok’s murder matches both Young-ho and Seo-ha’s DNA. The culprit is a relative of both, and also a woman.
Episode 4 ends with Young-ho being kidnapped by a group of masked men.
Episode 5
It’s revealed pretty quickly that Young-ho’s kidnapper is Tae-seong, the landlord who is trying to sell his building to Seo-ha and wants to speed up the deal by getting Young-ho out of the way. He’s adamant about not signing over his inheritance and manages to attempt an escape which leaves him injured. Tae-seong suggests they make him disappear and have done with it, which panics Seo-ha.
With Park trying to resign after mishandling the case and Choi having already suggested resigning himself to take the heat, the two are at loggerheads and we get some more backstory. The rift between him and his son came after Choi blamed him for his mother’s death. Choi believes Seo-ha’s own mother is still alive and out there, which he explains to Park when they receive notice that Young-ho’s smashed-up car has been discovered.
The investigation reveals that Young-ho might have been conceived by incest, with Myung-ho impregnating his sister Myung-hee and the two of them being shunned and ostracised. The shamanistic rituals we’ve been seeing in flashbacks were efforts to purge Myung-ho of the presumed demon inside of him. Myung-hee took Young-ho to another temple to raise him in isolation on the pretext of him being a gifted shaman, but he was obviously no such thing and got badly bullied.
Choi puts two and two together and realizes that Myung-hee is not just the killer but has already met her – she was “neighbor” he met back in Episode 1. At the end of this penultimate episode, Myung-hee kidnaps Seo-ha.
Episode 6
So, the killer is now exposed. Myung-hee is responsible for everything and explains to Seo-ha – while Choi and Park try to track her down through Sung-soo – that she wants Young-ho to get the burial land. That, of course, means Seo-ha’s death, but she can at least “save her soul” before taking her life.
Of course, Young-ho can’t exactly flourish into a man in his present state, which Myung-hee is unaware of until Seo-ha tells her. She calls Tae-seong to prove her point and threatens to call the police if he doesn’t reveal Young-ho’s location, which leaves him with murderous intentions for both Young-ho and Seo-ha.
Choi and Park finesse the address out of Seo-ha and begin to make their way there, while Myung-hee takes Seo-ha to the location and leaves her outside. She’s taken in and bricked inside a kiln with Young-ho. Myung-hee tries to save Young-ho from outside but she’s knocked out and shot in the leg.
When Choi and Park arrive, the sirens panic Tae-seong into setting the building ablaze. Myung-hee is able to break into the kiln and free Seo-ha, who helps her escape with Young-ho. Tae-seong and his goons are arrested. Park is shot but survives and is quite happy to have a new injury to blame his limp on.
Myung-hee commits suicide by running back inside the burning building. Seo-ha opens a new art studio, free from legal recourse because Young-ho denied being kidnapped so she wouldn’t be implicated. She and Young-ho aren’t in contact much, though.
Detective Choi leaves the police force and visits his son in prison for the first time. Seo-ha inherits the burial grounds and has Myung-hee’s remains interred there, beside her mother and father.
That was our recap of The Bequeathed Season 1 (Episodes 1-6). What are you thoughts on the season overall? Let us know in the comments.
