See You in My 19th Life season 1 episode 5 recap & review: Am I the Butterfly or Is the Butterfly Me?

In the fifth episode of See You in My 19th Life, Cho-won’s growing suspicions lead Ji-eum to tell her the truth about her past life. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

Seeing Seo-ha cry for Ju-won makes Cho-won and Ji-eum upset. Once Cho-won leaves, Ji-eum finds the gift box that Ju-won had given Seo-ha before her death and starts crying. Unbeknownst to her, Seo-ha sees her cry. 

Ji-eum keeps having the same dream that makes her feel uneasy. On the other hand, Seo-ha dreams of Ju-won and Ji-eum. The dream hurts him so much that he ends up wrecking his home. 

He later tells Do-yun that when he is with Ji-eum, all his worries disappear. He likes her, but she reminds him of Ju-won. 

Ji-eum goes to Seo-ha’s house, but he does not meet her. She runs into Han-na, the dancer, who compliments her and calls her Ju-won.

Since Cho-won wants to speak to Seo-ha, Do-yun invites her to go to the beach with them, and she invites Ji-eum. There, Seo-ha tells Ji-eum that he feels like he knows why she was crying last night. 

Ji-eum then uses one of her three chances and asks him out. She tells him to take his time to think about his answer and dances with him. When they get drenched in rain, they decide to go to Cho-won’s family vacation house with Cho-won and Do-yun.

Seo-ha is not the only one who is reminded of Ju-won when he is with Ji-eum; she also reminds Cho-won of Ju-won. Cho-won remembers how she blamed Seo-ha for her sister’s death when she was young. 

Seo-ha finally stops pushing Cho-won away and admits that he only did that because he could not bear to see her. He always ended up thinking about Ju-won whenever he saw Cho-won.

When Ji-eum thinks that everyone is asleep, she takes out the doll that she had hidden in a clock in her past life; Cho-won was never able to find that doll. She also moves the furniture to see Cho-won’s height chart.

Cho-won witnesses all this and is shocked. When she asks Ji-eum how she knows the things that only Ju-won knew, Ji-eum comes up with excuses. Seo-ha overhears this conversation and goes out to take a walk. 

Ji-eum follows Seo-ha, and he gives her his answer to her first proposal. He tells her that since he is her first love, her first love will not work out.  

Kang Min-gi, the man who had gone to see Han-na in the previous episode, comes to get a part-time job at Ae-gyeong’s restaurant. Ae-gyeong collapses and is taken to the hospital. Min-gi stays by her side the whole time.

Ae-gyeong tells him that she does not want anyone to know about her health. She has been having this issue for quite some time, but the doctors could not diagnose her illness. She not only gives Min-gi a part-time job but also room and board.

Seo-ha confronts Ms. Jang about the misuse of the hotel’s budget and asks her to cooperate with him or get ready to leave. An angry Ms. Jang comes to hit him when he is with Ji-eum, and it is Ji-eum who ends up getting hit.

Seo-ha’s uncle intervenes and takes Ms. Jang away. He then promises to get her son, Chan-hyeok, a job at the HQ and take care of him, even though Seo-ha’s father does not like him.

Dong-u gets beaten up by loan sharks when he fails to repay the money on time. To save himself, he convinces them to use Seo-ha to threaten Ji-eum for money. Dong-u also convinces Seo-ha to go with him and the loan sharks by telling him that this could put Ji-eum in danger.

Do-jin sees Seo-ha leaving with the men and follows him. Seo-ha refuses to pay the loan sharks and fights them. Do-jin also comes to his aid, but because of him, the men find out that Seo-ha’s father is the chairman of the MI Group. 

However, they are forced to flee when they hear police sirens. It turns out that Ji-eum brought a siren with her to scare them away. Ji-eum and Seo-ha fight over who is going to take care of the loan sharks, which makes Do-jin think that she is Seo-ha’s girlfriend.

The three of them go out to eat together, and Seo-ha asks Ji-eum not to be reckless because he does not want anyone to get hurt because of him. He also tells her that he liked Ju-won’s eyes because they were understanding.

Cho-won thinks a lot about Ji-eum because she cannot stop feeling like she is her sister. When she discusses this with Do-yun, he tells her that Ji-eum seemed suspicious to him, and she herself said that she has an ulterior motive. 

Cho-won gets drunk and calls Ji-eum to meet her because she thinks that Ji-eum is using her to be more like Ju-won in order to get close to Seo-ha. When Cho-won starts crying, Ji-eum decides to tell her the truth. She admits that she was Ju-won in her past life and that she remembers everything.

Review

  • Cho-won watching Ji-eum find the things that only Ju-won knew about is a scene that was made as dramatic as possible with thunderstorms and lightning, but fortunately, the actors save this scene from being almost comical. 
  • There was a lack of flow in this episode. Things kept happening one after the other, and because the flow was missing, most events seemed random. 
  • However, the events leading up to Ji-eum’s revelation were handled well, so when Ji-eum tells Cho-won her secret, the timing as well as the emotion were perfect.

Also Read: See You in My 19th Life season 1 episode 4 recap & review: The Inability to Forget About the One You Long For

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