'Tale of the Nine-Tailed' Episode 10: Forget Imoogi-gumiho fight, Yu Ri asking Shin Joo to bed her is best
'Tale of the Nine-tailed' Episode 10 begins with Lee Yeon and Nam Ji-ah taking a trip back in the past. He opens up about the time when he used to be the Forest Spirit Guard and tells her all about how the Imoogi had manipulated both Ae Eum and Lee Yeon but had failed then because of Ae Eum's sacrifice. All that the Imoogi wants, now and then, is to take over the boy of the powerful gumiho and rule the forest and marry Ae Eum (now Ji-ah). He believes that both the position of the guard of the forest and the woman who fell for Lee Yeon belong to him. Why he thinks so is not something that is expanded on, however, we do see how he ruined Ae Eum and Lee Yeon's life.
Even before the Imoogi had taken over Ae Eum's body, she had broken up with Lee Yeon after confessing her love for him. Lee Yeon had been afraid of falling in love with a mortal and right after she confessed her love, he turns her away. A few days later, when he leaves the mountain as he tracked a monster that was disturbing the peace, he ends up being attacked by the villagers who are scared of gumiho and because he is not in the area he is assigned to protect, his powers are also weak. At that moment, just as Ji-ah had promised, she protects him and this forms a chain of favor between the two of them.
A ring of gold thread very similar to the one that we saw on Lee Rang and Imoogi's caretaker is formed between the two of them. Turns out, as a way to balance all the power that the gumiho has, the one rule that they are forced to stick with is to pay every favor back. So gumihos are usually very careful about who they owe a favor to. Lee Yeon's favor leads to him being saved because Ae Eum fights for control over her body from the Imoogi just when Lee Yeon is about to sacrifice himself for her. She calls in her favor and asks Lee Yeon to kill her and as a gumiho who owes her a favor, he is forced to take her life.
Will Lee Rang be forced to do the caretaker's bidding? That wouldn't end too well for Lee Yeon or Ji-ah. However, Imoogi miscalculated and sent Lee Rang to the Forest of the Starved. This resolved his hate for his brother and now he doesn't want to betray his brother. So the moment the caretaker calls in his favor and asks Lee Rang to bring Lee Yeon to him so that he can use his body, things change. Le Rang realizes that he must find a way and get out of paying this favor back and so he approaches Taluipa. She doesn't help him though and tells him that the only way a gumiho can get away from paying back for a favor is by dying. It is Taluipa's husband that helps Lee Rang find a loophole by giving him a hint and explains that the favor is always paid back in a quid pro quo manner.
Can Lee Rang really figure out a way to get out of this deal? This is something that we would have to wait and watch. In the meantime, we also see Imoogi's plan to intrigue Ji-ah flop when she ends up finding out that the founder of her channel is hiding something. The fake nail that she had found in his home belongs to a dead body that surfaces and when Ji-ah figures this out, she approaches the caretaker who is identified as the traitor who was branded with a tattoo. She learns that he is the one to have taken her parents away and he uses this to try and strike a deal with her.
He tells her that he can reunite her with her parents if she can bring him Lee Yeon. Ji-ah is shocked and we do not see her respond to this, but what we do see is Lee Yeon successfully tracks who Imoogi is. Despite Imoogi attempting to stay around Ji-ah under the guise of a new intern, Lee Yeon manages to confront him and asks him what he wants. He wants Lee Yeon's life in return for keeping people close to Lee Yeon alive. The episode ends on that electric note but what we really liked most about this episode really is the way Yu Ri and Shin-joo's relationship grew.
What we need to remember is that they are foxes and their instinct to mate is high. Sure, Shin-joo has adapted to human ways and wants to enjoy the life of dating, falling in love before he sleeps with a woman. However, our feisty Yu Ri has other ideas and the moment she learns of Shin-joo's rough past from which he was saved by Lee Yeon, she is attracted to him. This attraction leads to Yu Ri asking him if he would like to sleep with her. Our Shin-joo, who is extremely shy and in many ways timid, tries to tell her that the right way to go about this would be by starting to date, and then progress. However, she simply says that it is better to skip all of these steps and the door shuts in our faces to reveal that he went along with Yu Ri's plans. Their rapport has us shipping them more than Lee Yeon and Ji-ah!
'Tale of the Nine-Tailed' will be aired on tvN on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10.30 pm KST and can be streamed on Viki Global.