'Mystic Pop-up Bar' Episode 7 Review: Kang-bae and Yeo-rin have first kiss, Weol-ju recalls her love story
In episode 6 of 'Mystic Pop-up Bar,' we saw Weol-ju (Hwang Jung-eum) and Manager Gwi's (Choi Won-young) bar get suspended over stealing a conception dream. In episode 7, we see the two of them face the consequences of their actions while Kang-bae (Yook Sung-jae) has to face the sudden disappearance of two people that he had grown very close to recently. Weol-ju and Gwi get punished with community service of 120 hours at the Afterlife and their bar is confiscated until they fulfill the punishment at the beginning of the episode. As they work through the hours, they chance upon an effective way to escape their punishment and get their bar back.
The Caretaker of Underworld (Yum Hye-ran) ends up committing an error that could end up getting her fired by the Jade Emperor. The only one who could stop this happens to be Weol-ju with the help of Gwi. Because of a careless mistake, one of the spirits who was supposed to go through the chamber of oblivion that would erase the memories of past life doesn't succeed because the power chord to the chamber was disconnected by the Caretaker in a moment of panic. The spirit that was supposed to be reborn as a hen remembers everything from the past life and carries his grudges forward, so when he gets the chance, the spirit escapes and enters the body of a rich man whose farm he was supposed to be born at.
Now, Gwi and Weol-ju make a deal with the Caretaker and attempt to bring the spirit back to the Afterlife. In return, Weol-ju negotiates for her bar to be reopened, for her target to be lessened by one and for her deadline to be pushed by ten days. When the Caretaker agrees, the two return to the world of the living to take care of the spirit with Kang-bae's help.
Meanwhile, Kang-bae is extremely worried about Weol-ju and Gwi receiving extreme punishments like being boiled in a cauldron of hot oil. He is completely out of his mind worrying for them that he doesn't even pay attention to the upcoming employee couple dance competition. He also doesn't pay too much attention to Yeo-rin and claims that it is because of his CIA work. While, by the end of the episode, he does get kissed by Yeo-rin who makes the move just to ensure that she could experience a kiss, initially in the episode, Kang-bae comes across as uncaring.
However, once Weol-ju and Gwi return, Kang-bae finds out that the spirit that they are hunting has entered none other than the chairman of the mart that he works at in the morning. If Kang-bae wins the competition, as an employee he will be granted a wish by the Chairman, which he plans to use to get close to the Chairman in private and get the spirit to leave. The team succeeds but in the process, they have unraveled things from the past that has now come to haunt them in the present.
For instance, when Weol-ju was at the Reincarnation Library trying to find what became of her mother, she ends up chancing upon that of the Royal file. Just when she opens the book to check what became of her lover as she recalled sweet moments, Gwi ends up interrupting her and she never gets a chance to look into things, but this is an indication that Weol-ju is not done with her past. Then, there is also the evil spirit that has been following Kang-bae, Weol-ju and Gwi around for a while now. This man used to be the Crown Prince's brother in arms in the past who Weol-ju had met, but he harbors hatred for her and his friend. This hatred seems to have become a source of strength for him to hold on to his evil spirit, while he stalks Weol-ju. After having consumed many evil spirits' soul beads, he seems to have gathered enough strength, but his plans haven't been revealed as of now.
Then there is the question of Gwi's connection to collecting evil spirit soul beads and why he has stuck by Weol-ju's side all this while. Could he also be someone who has promised to look out for Weol-ju? If so, what could his connection to Weol-ju be? This is something we have to watch out for in the next episode.
'Mystic Pop-up Bar' originally airs in South Korea on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9.30 pm KST on JTBC and can be streamed on Netflix in the US.