West Sky 1
Episode 11 of Tomorrow begins with rumours of Ryung-Gu and Ryeon spreading across to the new recruits in hell. Jun-Woong is there to stop them, shouting and forcing them to stop running their mouths. Only, the rumours surrounding Ryung-Gu having killed 4 people in the past aren’t actually rumours – they’re true. When Ryung-Gu returns that night, he apologizes for getting his personal feelings involved and decides to leave. On the way out, Jun-Woong tries to stop him, but to no avail. It turns out Ryeon was actually the one who escorted both Ryung-Gu and his mother to the Afterlife. He escorted the former because he murdered someone. So what actually happened? Well, we head back in time and learn more about Ryung-Gu’s past. After the instance of his mother giving Ryung-Gu encouraging words regarding the meaning of his name, he tried to get Minister Kim’s son to help him read and write. Unfortunately, he’s beaten down for his insolence. Instead, Ryung-GU’s mother, Yu-Hwa (but she’s called Geum-Hong which appears to be her “mistress” name), decides to teach her son how to read and write. Given he’s incredibly smart and has a thirst for knowledge, she does her best to satiate that through her teachings. The trouble is, there’s issues involving the governor, who happens to be looking for Ryung-Gu’s mother. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of thugs show up and call her a prostitute. As thing start escalating, she promises to go wit them quietly to the governor in order to protect her son. She’s brought before the governor late at night, where he berates her old status as a kisaeng. Anyway, the governor wants to adopt Ryung-Gu as his son, which would make Geum-Hong his mistress. It’s a horrible fate for her but on the flip side, would give her son untold amount of opportunities to make it as an official, which is what she wants for him. Yu-Hwa makes her decision and rejects the Governor. Unfortunately, rumorus about her being a prostitute in her previous life spread across town. That night, after Ryung-Gu beats down a couple of boys for badmouthing his mother, he returns home to find the gang leaving his mother’s place. Unfortunately, Ryung-Gu berates his mother from behind the door, telling her it’s shameful and humiliating to be lowborn. He wanted to be an official. Unfortunately, she ends up committing suicide that night. Fast forward and Ryung-Gu is a man possessed, cold and twisted following the death of his mother. Only, he wasn’t aware that Yu-Hwa was gang raped by those men. It’s only when he returns to the neighbourhood that his neighbour tells him what the governor and the thugs did to her. In a fit of rage, Ryung-Gu kills the governor and his men. He finally understands what happened and wills for death, gladly. He wants to see his mum again, which sees Ryeon appear and guide him to the afterlife. Ryeon Admits that she also took Yu-Hwa to the afterlife but there was a time when she didn’t love Ryung-Gu. She ignored him for days as a baby but finally something gave way and she loved him unconditionally from there on out. Ryung-Gu realizes that he will never get to see his mother, given her special sin of suicide. So Ryung-Gu decides to apply and work as a reaper, under the guidance of Ryeon on the Reaper team. His goal here is to hopefully see his mother in a reincarnated form. Fast forward to 2021 and rumblings around the afterlife is that the RM Team is going to be incepted. Given how personal this is to Ryung-Gu, he decides to step up and become a team member, determined to try and save his mother from killing herself. Ryung-Gu does meet her too and it’s a heartbreaking meeting. When he buys a whole load of clothes, Yu-Hwa is there to comment on his name – just like she did all those yeArs ago in her previous life. With Ryung-Gu’s time coming to an end, he heads out with Jun-Woong to have a farewell dinner. Only, his mother passes by, pregnant and with her partner. Ryung-Gu changes his mind and decides they should go for a drink instead. Whilst drinking soju, Ryung-Gu reflects on how he killed his mother and was to blame for what happened to her. The burden is too much for him to bear and Ryung-Gu heads outside, struggling to hold back tears. As the episode closes out, we cut back to the RM Team, where Yu-Hwa flashes up on the mobile. She’s close to committing suicide.
The Episode Review
Tomorrow returns with another good episode, this time focusing exclusively on Ryung-Gu and exactly what’s been going on with him. The crying and the distancing, not to mention how he reacted to the sexual assault, all now make a lot more sense as it comes to a devastating head in this emotionally charged episode. I’ve bee super critical on Tomorrow for a while but the individual chapters have easily been the best part of this show. This time around, learning more about Ryung-Gu’s past has been a really welcome part of this show and it makes for one of the best episodes of the series. The ending also hints that we’re about to get an emotional follow-up too, especially if Ryung-Gu is the one to try and talk his mother out of suicide. We’ll have to wait and see of course but for now, Tomorrow rounds out with another good chapter.
