'Tale of the Nine-tailed' Episode 8: Imoogi traps Lee Rang, Ji-ah within worst fears, who will Lee Yeon save?
'Tale of the Nine-Tailed' Episode 8 starts with Ji-ah seeing a part of her previous life that shocks her speechless. She learns about how Ae Eum (Jo Bo-ah) had fallen in love with Lee Yeon (Lee Dong-wook), the amount of trust she had in him to let him decide the fate of her life, and even let an Imoogi (Lee Tae-ri) occupy her body to be able to remove the evil creature from the premises of the palace and farther away from her father and how all of this led to her death. She also sees on a part of the truth and misinterprets whatever she had seen. She assumes that Lee Yeon had used Ae Eum in the past as bait to capture the Imoogi, but there is still a part of her past that she is not aware of. So she casts Lee Yeon out for being an inconsiderate gumiho, when in reality, he is doing everything to keep her safe.
Meanwhile, Lee Yeon also decides that he is done letting Lee Rang (Kim Beom) off for all the mean things that he has done in the name of exacting revenge against his brother for abandoning him as a child in a forest. Now, as Lee Rang messed with Ji-ah, Lee Yeon believes that it is time to let Lee Rang know that his bratty behavior will no longer be entertained. It is while the brothers have this conversation that we are also made privy to how Lee Rang and Lee Yeon came to know each other. Lee Rang's mother abandoned him in the middle of a forest because he was the son of a yeowu. Lee Yeon had saved him and brought him up, gifting him an adorable puppy even. The love that Lee Yeon showed at this point is what led Lee Rang to love his brother more than anyone else and this is also the reason why he was unable to cope up with his brother making the choice of leaving Lee Rang behind to go in search of true love for over six centuries.
Despite absolving himself of any connection to Lee Rang in the future, the question of Lee Yeon's attachment to his brother and vice versa becomes something that the Imoogi is worried about after Lee Rang throws a tantrum. Lee Rang doesn't want to hurt his brother from the looks of it, but kill Ji-ah. Imoogi, however, wants to use Lee Yeon but not kill Ji-ah because she is the sacrifice that was offered to him centuries ago as a bride. It is to clarify the reality of the brothers' relationship that the Imoogi comes up with the idea of trapping both Lee Rang and Ji-ah with their worst fears. For Lee Rang, the fear of being abandoned is acute and when he was left at the Forest of Hungry, at one point he even believed that his brother might not come around to save him. Not this time. Meanwhile, Ji-ah is trapped in the moment when the accident on the roads in yeowu gohae took place. All of this is happening at the same time, and Lee Yeon has to make a choice if he hopes to save even one of them as time is running out. So who will he choose?
'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.