"Born Again" drama: Episode's three and four recap

 Air Dates: April 20th to June 9, 2020.... Monday and Tuesday nights at 10:00 pm on KBS2

 Ratings for the two episodes were 2.4 and 2.8%, KBS2 isn't too major of a channel

Main Cast: This will be changing entirely soon but don't know at what point, thinking about the seventh or eighth episode. The series began in 1987 but the top three characters were all killed in early 1989 but three decades later were reincarnated. However they all returned looking slightly different with new names, new professions and none knew each other from the past. It's not a confusing drama but one that can be a tad complicated if you don't follow it from the beginning.

Jin Se-Yeon as Jung Ha-Eun....25 year old woman who owns a used bookstore. She's the girlfriend of  Cha but keeps putting off getting married to him mainly because of a serious heart condition and is she possibly in line to become the next victim of a serial killer?

 Lee Seo-Yuk as Cha Hyeong-Bin.... Ha-Eun's boyfriend and is a very astute detective who has been assigned the Yellow Umbrella Serial Killer case.

 Jang Ki-Yong as Gong Ji-Cheol.... At first we thought this unstable young man was the serial killer but that's not the case but he did end up murdering a woman. He had such a crush on 
Ha-Eun and is her unknown 'protector'.

 Jung In-Gyeom as Gong In-Woo.... Ji-Cheol's father who is/was the true serial killer. He had taken a break from killing after murdering eight woman but had returned with a vengeance.

 Jang Won-Young as Joo In-Do.... Cha's partner in the 80's and will be in present day too.

 The cast was a large one for these first eight or so episodes(/) that took place in the 1980's. However very few except for the above did we see in more than two shows and even then it was only briefly. Will talk about them in the recaps but to save space didn't include them above.

 Every post will have two episodes and was thinking it may make it much easier to follow a drama if you're interested in it. Most of the time I would do 2-4 recaps a week which means it'd take about five or more weeks to do them all. It's easy to forget what happened in a show if you have to wait a week for a post and perhaps a viewer would lose interest in reading them. So this way you can read what took place from the very first minute until the final one, for now that's the plan. There's also going to be a new video at the top of each post, could be a promo, scene from a show, etc.

 That first recap was definitely a very long one, usually the first post for a series is the longest one but that may have set a record. Will try to pare them down for now on but it was important to set things up and to meet the characters. However the above cast list will be changing and perhaps sooner than I thought, you'll understand at the very end. Will go back to my usual way of recapping as I'll go in order of events instead of discussing each person as in this show most scenes had at least two of them together. We began off where the last show left off which was of Ji-Cheol killing that older woman. The first few minutes showed more of how she was killed but no other new details.

 One thing that should help keep the posts a bit shorter as I won't need to discuss what's happened to date as those events will be in the previous post. In the first post wasn't quite positive why Ji-Cheol killed the woman Yoon, knew it was  partly revenge for her adopted son but also thought it may have been to make her brain dead which means she may be a potential heart donor for Ha-Eun. The first part was correct but not the second one but that was an idea which formed in Ji-Cheol's mind after the beating as she was still alive though barely. He knew all about what the criteria needs to be for a heart transplant, he had quickly called the police to send help before Yoon died.

 Also on the phone to the police was Ha-Eun who had stumbled upon the murder scene, she knew
Ji-Cheol slightly and was shocked that a mild mannered man would do such a thing. She did contact the police from a nearby phone booth but before she could describe the events Ha-Eun passed out and of course coming to her rescue was Ji-Cheol who knew he had to flee the crime scene. For the second time(?) he carried Ha-Eun to the nearby hospital where they knew her well, he stayed until Ha-Eun was out of danger. Shortly after that Ha-Eun's detective boyfriend Cha arrived at the hospital, when he heard that someone was holding her hand until a minute before he arrived Cha put two and two together to realize that man was none other than the potential Yellow Umbrella Killer.

 Ha-Eun was feeling much better and Cha sent her home, he'll soon return to keep guard at her house all night. But in the meantime he went to the murder scene at the hair salon which had been owned by Yoon. She appeared to be the 11th victim of the serial killer as a yellow umbrella was left at the scene. That umbrella wasn't there when Ji-Cheol killed the woman so in my opinion think that his father's assistants planted it to make it look as though the serial killer committed the murder and not his son. Cha's partner Joo made a wise observation as he noted that this victim had been beaten with a wooden 2x4 while the other ten women had been stabbed. Cha didn't seem to think it was important though it was, wonder if he wanted to keep his theory a secret?

 As you notice above freedom for Ji-Cheol was about to end and unknown to her Ha-Eun was the main reason. Cha had given her a walkie-talkie to notify him of any impending danger or if she fell ill again, these were days before cellphones and many may find it hard to believe there was such a time. It wasn't mentioned but my theory was that Cha had inserted a tracking device in that walkie-talkie, he could track his girlfriend's every move. Which was the case as one morning when Ha-Eun had been heading to a bathhouse tailing her was Ji-Cheol, not to hurt his love in any way but to be her 'protector'. However also being a tailer was Cha who was hot on the steps of Ji-Cheol, when he entered a street devoid of too many people Cha made his move.

 Him and his team of detectives quickly surrounded Ji-Cheol who had no chance of escaping, he was arrested on the spot for being the serial killer of eleven women. Ha-Eun had witnessed the scene but was rather stoic as she didn't shout out to Cha nor did she make any effort to help Ji-Cheol as in her heart he was innocent. He is innocent or at least for the first ten murders as Cha was unable to get
Ji-Cheol, he did confess to Yoon's killing but not the other ten. He told Cha that his father was responsible for those killings which Cha said was a lie as the elder Gong had been dead for fifteen years. But think that Cha didn't want to reveal too much as he was aware of the school where
Ji-Cheol's father had been holed up at or was aware the real killer was.

 Cha had found a clue at Ji-Cheol's apartment about the abandoned elementary school where the father had been living. This father Gong had been the real serial killer who had taken a break for two years but was now back. At the school Gong had painted portraits of the women he had stabbed and hung them on the walls as 'mementos'?. But beside those paintings Cha had also found one of his girlfriend Ha-Eun, was the serial killer planning on making her the next victim? To Cha that was the case and after that is when he gave Ha-Eun the bugged(?) walkie-talkie. To me felt that Cha knew
Ji-Cheol was telling much of the truth, he was a middle school dropout so where could he have learned to become such an excellent painter?

 Guess there's no way around having another long recap as these two episodes were ten minutes longer than most other pairs. Not every single detail needs to be revealed so let's just stay with the key ones such as has Ha-Eun finally accepted Cha's marriage proposal? The answer is yes and not sure why her mind changed. Ha-Eun still has her heart problem though it hasn't flared up for a while but a transplant will still be needed for her to live a long life. Their doctor suggested a cathedral in Samcheon and soon the pair will finally be united, the date is now early 1988 as many months have elapsed in four episodes.

 Ha-Eun still felt that Ji-Cheol was innocent, unknown to Cha who wouldn't have allowed it she visited him in prison. That didn't work out well for Ji-Cheol as Ha-Eun changed her views on the man as when she left Ha-Eun thought of him as a beast. Mainly because he told Ha-Eun the reason for killing Yoon was to save another person's life and to her that was no reason for murdering. Can't believe she never figured out Ji-Cheol had killed the woman to save Ha-Eun's life! Above is the trial for Ji-Cheol who had been charged with eleven murders and the evidence was so strong against him. Especially the final one of Yoon as Ha-Eun testified she was there for the killing but his defense lawyer was really on the ball.

 Final segment and that female lawyer destroyed so much of the evidence against Ji-Cheol though quite a bit of what she said were lies or twisted truth. There's no way Ji-Cheol could have killed Yoon or any of the other ten women as he has epilepsy and he's been in no condition to kill anyone. That brought up a murmur from the courtroom but before the proceedings could go on Ji-Cheol had a (planned?) seizure and was rushed to the hospital and then to a psych ward as the judge thought perhaps he did have a condition. Cha was furious at what took place as he felt it was staged plus to him there's no way a hospital could hold Ji-Cheol.

 Cha was on the money with his prediction as after a few days at the ward Ji-Cheol had managed to beat his doctor rather severely but not to death. Ji-Cheol also stole the doctor's ID and suit to escape in, he was successful but needed to jump out of a window. Cha didn't know any of this but had been heading to the psych ward to enact his own revenge, to me Cha felt the only way for this nightmare to end was to kill Ji-Cheol but when he arrived at the ward the damage had been done. Luckily he had sent Ha-Eun ahead to Samcheon as the wedding was set up quickly and would be taking place in two days. Somehow Ji-Cheol had learned of Ha-Eun's impending marriage wad was headed to the small town to prevent it.

 Zipped through those last few scenes but the final one was a bit long, also intense and to me very unexpected. Have no idea what Ha-Eun was thinking as her heart condition has prevented her from running or taking long walks. But a long one is what she did as she went to the snowy hills of Samcheon to take pictures and for what reason is unknown. Trailing silently behind her was of course Ji-Cheol and how do these maniacs always know what their prey may do? He surprised her on the hill and after not being afraid of Ji-Cheol for so long Ha-Eun was petrified of him. Before they could utter a word somehow appearing out of nowhere was Cha and how did he get there so fast?

 He was there to drag Ji-Cheol away and there was no way he was leaving his precious Ha-Eun without a struggle. Up until now we had only thought this scenario but were sure about it in this scene which was that Ji-Cheol's ultimate goal was to donate his heart to Ha-Eun, alas it never came close to happening. That's because there was a struggle between the two men with Ji-Cheol stabbing Cha with his own knife. Cha wouldn't die easily and attempted to shoot Ji-Cheol who was heading towards his 'love' Ha-Eun. That shot missed but the intensity of the action was too much for Ha-Eun's weak heart as it gave away, now both the soon to be married couple were deceased. That number would increase to a trio as a very distraught Ji-Cheol realized there was no point in going on with life as he picked up Cha's pistol and shot himself in the head. As the episode came to it's tragic conclusion there were three dead bodies lying on top of a snowy Samcheon mountain.

 Somehow this may have been longer than the first post but these two episodes ran for almost seventy minutes. Promise to make the others more brief and should be able to as the shows will be ten minutes shorter plus will just try to stick with the major points and not talk about everything.

 Knew the trio were going to meet their death but didn't know that's how it would turn out plus more importantly didn't realize it would take place so soon in this drama. Haven't watched any show past these two but wonder if that means the action will pick up next thirty years from then or 2018? Hope quite not yet as there were a few loose ends to tie up from these first four episodes and we'll all soon find out where this drama will be headed next, hard to believe but there's fourteen more recaps to go. Hope you take that advice I gave in the first post which was to read just a pair of these recaps at a time as not to get bored with this series, so far it is complicated with perhaps too much going on but have really enjoyed it.