'Alice' Episode 9: Tae-yi affected by Jin-gyeom's death despite returning to 2020, Min-hyuk's truth surfaces
In 'Alice' we saw professor Tae-yi get lost in time and arrive in 2021, where she learned that detective Jin-gyeom was killed and his killer is still at large. Then we saw a glimpse of a scene in 2020 when Jin-gyeom was actually killed. Tae-yi was uncontrollably crying with Jin-gyeom lying on the ground after he was stabbed. Outside, looking at the two was none other than Jin-gyeom's captain who has also been a father figure to him since his mother was killed. In the future, the one clue that Tae-yi had found and from Jin-gyeom's belongings that were left behind, was a pen drive that had a video of the captain walking away from a scene.
For now, this doesn't seem that important to Tae-yi who is still struggling to accept the death of Jin-gyeom. This is the first time that she has traveled through time, so in addition to the stress of finding out that time traveling is actually possible, she also has to deal with the loss of someone that she had grown close to in the past few months. She also sees a few things that do not explain how things have been between her and Jin-gyeom in the past one year. The fact that there is a picture with the two of them posing together, or that she had grown even closer to Jin-gyeom is something that hits her hard once she is able to return to 2020.
And return she does, with Jin-gyeom's help. Just as the Book of Prophecies stated that the boy who had traveled through time in the womb would have complete control over time one day, we see in this episode, that he is able to stop time at the opportune moment when a member of Alice attempts to kill him. It is at this moment that Tae-yi travels back in time, without a time card and she also ends up getting affected by the radiation.
After she sees Jin-gyeom in the present, Tae-yi doesn't even realize that she is back in 2020. However, before she returned, she had met with scientist Oh-wan who had informed her to never involve herself in the business of time travel. He was also the one who informs Tae-yi about the fact that the only person to have seen the last page of the Book of Prophecies was Tae-yi herself as a child. when she asks him who killed Jin-gyeom, she is told that he was killed while attempting to find the last page of the book.
In the present, Do-yeon interviews a witness who was present at the scene while Tae-yi had been taken hostage and finds out how she had disappeared mid-fall. So even she is aware that something is going on between Jin-gyeom and Tae-yi which somehow connects both of them to time travel. Until now, everyone including members of Alice believed that professor Tae-yi has nothing to do with Sun-young. However, the more we learn about Tae-yi, the more suspicious we get. The two of them do not only look alike and are of the same profession, but they also share their birthday which tells us that the two could still be the same person from different times. After Jin-gyeom learns of Tae-yi's birthday, he buys her a gift, and hands it to her after he is done holding the memorial prayers for his mother. The gift that Jin-gyeom gives Tae-yi shocks her into unconsciousness because it is the same neckpiece that she had worn in a picture with him in the future. This could only mean that Jin-gyeom's death is also something that will take place.
Then there is Min-hyuk who after getting suspicious about his colleague begins to dig into Jin-gyeom again only to find out that the cop is actually his son and that his love is no longer alive. Min-hyuk arrives at Jin-gyeom's doorstep just in time to see Tae-yi having passed out due to radiation.
'Alice' airs on SBS on Fridays and Saturdays at 10 pm KST and can be streamed on Viki Global.
