Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Goblin) - Part 2

Welcome back to *Hallyu Reviews*! We hope you enjoyed Sabrina’s review of **“W”** last week. If you missed it, be sure to go back and have a read!
This week we take a look at “Guardian: The Great and Lonely God (Goblin) - Part 2.”

**SPOILERS AHEAD!!**

"Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Goblin)- Part 1"

Kim Shin is back with a reawakened spirit. He asks for all of the things that he gave out before he left to have the sword removed. He gave his nephew a credit card; Ji Eun Tak received $5,000, perfume, and an expensive bag; the Grim Reaper the deed to his house; but most importantly he gave his dear friend, Chairman Yoo, his scroll to keep safe. Chairman Yoo tells him “How about trying to live instead of trying to die? Wouldn’t it be nice if because of you, someone in this world who lives a righteous life of good gets to experience mysteriously beautiful luck and a miracle for once in their life?”

Attempt to Remove the Sword #2

Eun Tak is walking with the Goblin after singing in a wedding and gets emotional about all the things she won’t be able to do with a dad. She expresses to Goblin how sorry she is for not being able to take the sword out and how she wanted to tell him, but they keep arguing. She asks him to please give her a discount on the mistreatment by 50% since she is preparing to leave and is still a student, he disagrees and gives her a hug. Suddenly he has a sharp pain where the sword is, she can see it and goes to pull it to free him from the pain. She starts to pull it out and he slings her against a truck with an electric display. He reaches her to save her before she gets hurt but causes a huge catastrophic event of car destruction in the background. Deok Hwa calls upon the Reaper to help erase everyone’s memory and gives everyone whose car got wrecked money for a new car.

Conflicted much??

So basically, what you’re telling me is that if the Goblin gets the sword pulled out, he dies? Like, completely disappears into ash?! Yes…however, according to the Ahjumma in the beginning, the grandmother (or as I call her, the Red Goddess), Eun Tak will continue to face deadly obstacles and even death the longer she is alive, if the Goblin still has his sword. Her purpose in birth was to remove the sword from the Goblin. Well, that sucks…so, no happy ending?!?!?!? What’s a girl to do? Run away, of course…she runs to work at a ski resort, but he finds her and brings her back home.

Death will come for you…again…Ji Eun Tak – Death by falling

The Reaper tells Goblin about a death card he receives for Eun Tak that describes her death as falling. Goblin tells Eun Tak about it and the fate that comes with her being a Goblin bride. He promises to keep her safe. As Eun Tak gets ready to go to work, she says, “If I live shaking in fear for a long time in this house, that is not living.” Y’all that is so true. “Even if I die tomorrow, I have to live today.” I love that. It resonates with me and actually probably most people, especially after being trapped in our houses and what not for a year to two years with COVID. Another reason why these writers are brilliant. Eun Tak is asked by one of the ghosts to confront her cheating husband, who apparently pushed her off the roof and killed her. Eun Tak does not know how the ghost did when she agrees to talk to him, and he gets dangerously close to pushing her off a rooftop, too, when she blows out a lighter and is rescued by the Goblin.

Who is King Wang Yeo?

Every year Kim Shin goes and lights a lantern for his sister and King Wang Yeo on the date of his death. At this time, it is revealed that Sunny’s real name is Kim Sun, after being named by a clairvoyant. While standing in the kitchen with Reaper, Goblin tells the story of how the young baby is born and eventually becomes king. How no one watched him but himself, Kim Shin, and the late king’s adviser, Eunuch Park Joong Hun. Everyone around him would die due to being poisoned, the king, his older brother, and his nephew. When the little boy was crowned king, King Wang Yeo, he was still a small child and easily manipulated by Eunuch Park Joong Hun. He was married to Kim Sun, Kim Shin’s younger sister, a variable that wasn’t in Park Joong Hun’s plan to rule over the king. Over time, Park Joong Hun puts the idea in the King’s head that Kim Shin is committing treason and should be killed. The King tries to convince Kim Shin to leave and not return, and yet, he keeps retuning, much to the King’s frustration. Goblin explains to Reaper that he couldn’t ignore the late king’s order to protect King Wang Yeo and the people. At Eunuch Park’s urging, King Wang Yeo orders Kim Shin’s sister’s death right in front of Kim Shin, as well as the death of his family. In the end, Kim Shin is stabbed with his sword by his friend and captain, who is then promptly murdered. Back in the present, Eunuch Park Joong Hun is apparently a spirit! What?? An ugly one at that. He is positively scary - must be all that negative energy. Spirit Park reveals to Eun Tak that King Wang Yeo is the nameless Reaper who is now living with Kim Shin. Spirit Park reveals the same news to Goblin when he tries to kill him but cannot. Kim Shin goes to look for King Wang Yeo, whom we know as the Reaper. They find each other waiting at the top of the temple stairs, Kim Shin has him by the throat, but realizes that he really has become friends with him and can’t do anything further. He lets him go. Such an intense scene. Grim Reapers have their past memories erased, but as punishment for violating all the Reaper rules to assist the Goblin, all of the Reaper/Wang Yeo’s memories are returned to him. We see via flashback the final days of King Wang Yeo and learn that in his grief, he drew the portrait of Kim Sun that the Goblin treasures, and committed the worst sin of all, suicide.

Heartbreak

Eun Tak’s back scar is slowly fading, and she concludes that the sword must be used to actually destroy Park Joong Hun. She and Kim Shin devise a plan if she is ever near Park Joong Hun to make sure she uses her lighter quickly because Kim Shin may not respond to her call for help. When she does, she realizes that Park Joong Hun is going to use her to pull the sword out and kill Kim Shin. Instead, Kim Shin uses her to pull it out himself to kill Park Joong Hun. He slowly starts to flicker away like sparks of a flame. He promises to come at the first snow, based on their original agreement, and she tells him she loves him. This scene is just heart shattering, but also beautiful. The lyrics of the music match the atmosphere perfectly, “you’re my whole life and all my heart.” In the end, Eun Tak is left crying as all the memories of Kim Shin are erased from the key characters. Eun Tak scrambles to write something down so that she can keep a memory of what happened to the man she loved.

There is a time jump of 10 years…you see Kim Shin battle horrible snowy fields and Eun Tak look at the falling snow like she forgot something. She takes a cake to the roof and blows out a candle and the Goblin returns, on the day of the first snow. Kim Shin appears on the rooftop, but she cannot remember him. He looks at Eun Tak with a desire of 1,000 years and there is a flashback of some of the past memories. From then on, every time she blows out a candle he suddenly appears. She seems bewildered and unsure of why he is there, but there is a closeness that she can sense, so she gravitates towards him. Eun Tak receives a letter in the mail from herself, written 10 years ago when she was in Canada, so she goes back abroad in the search of something. Kim Shin follows her to Canada where she keeps getting little glimpses of her memories. Finally, she confronts him at the graveside, but Kim Shin denies everything. However, Eun Tak sees a falling leaf and all of her memories come flooding back. Through tears, she rushes to blow out a candle, and Kim Shin kisses her as soon as he sees her. They reminisce and relive old times and she catches a flight back home. As soon as she is off the plane, he whisks her back to Canada, and y’all…that kiss…swoon worthy! She jumps into his arms. So sweet. Naturally, he does the next thing he can think of and proposes to her. They wed in the field of buckwheat flowers, where their shared their first snow fall.

Unfortunately, Grim Reaper gets a job about a school bus full of children who are going to die in an accident, and he sees Eun Tak at the scene. She spots the bus and the truck and sacrifices her life for the kids. The moment between these two in the Reaper’s sanctuary is devastating. Reaper confirms that it was Eun Tak’s first life and that she has 3 more lives remaining. Goblin looks awful, he is so devastated. He finally got her only to lose her again. She tells him to have more moments of happiness and asks the Reaper to watch after him. He creates a gravestone for her.

Years later, we see Wang Yeo and Sunny in a life happily working together and enjoying each other’s company. But in the final scene, Goblin goes to Canada, and it is there, reading by his family’s gravesite, that Eun Tak finds him. She asks him if he knows who she is, and he responds that she is the Goblin’s bride, the first and the last. But seriously…no kiss!

THE END

Swoon worthy moments

“Don’t you know who your boyfriend is?” - Standing outside of the bus stop Eun Tak is stressing because she must take her school exams. Goblin says he knows the answers and if she can remember them, he will tell them to her quickly. She says it’s okay because she is going to pass anyway. He is proud of her, so he pats her head. When he does this, time freezes for them, so 30 minutes pass. She looks at his watch and freaks and says she is going to be late. He says don’t you know who your boyfriend is, and she tells him, I thought you said you didn’t want me to call you that. Of course, he says, I lied. They rush through the crowds, and he opens a door and she makes it to her test on time. It’s a really sweet moment in which he admits that is actually falling for her.

“First Love hurts a Lot” – Eun Tak hears a crash from her room, so she comes out to check on things and sees Goblin passed out on the Marble floor. She lights candles and covers him with blankets and lays down next to him on the floor. Thinking he is asleep, she scolds him for taking medicine, but he responds, “because it hurts…first love hurts a lot”. Eun Tak doesn’t realize that he is talking about her (or she pretends to not notice) and encourages him to get some sleep. He tells her not to leave and falls asleep.

Eun Tak becomes legal – the clock strikes midnight and they go to get chicken gizzard and Soju at a street bar. She gets completely drunk while he goes to beat up some thugs and comes back in to sit down. As soon as he sits down, she goes to kiss him, actually taking her stool with her, and then he kisses her back. It’s a super adorable moment. I watched the background on this, and it was her idea to move the stool to go and kiss him.

They try on wedding outfits together. So sweet. He looks at her with so much passion and admiration. Their smiles are so bright and over joyous.

Second Leads Romance – Reaper and Sunny

“It was destined to be a gut-wrenching love from the start” - Grim Reapers have no memories of their past, but they become reapers to atone for their past in which they committed a disastrous or heinous act/sin of some sort. Reaper is walking along the bridge and looking at jewelry from the older grandmother, when Sunny, the owner of the chicken shop that Eun Tak works at, stops and looks at the same jewelry. She picks up the same jade ring that he was looking at, a ring which once belonged to the wife of the King, Kim Shin’s little sister. Reaper has tears form in his eyes and is instantly in love with her. She asks to exchange information and laughs at how old school he is since he doesn’t have a phone or device. She gets the ring, they part ways. She keeps trying to get in contact with him and they keep meeting up. They like each other immediately and the times they meet up are super sweet and romantic. But they are on again and off again, she wants a relationship with him so badly and senses that he cannot give her one and continuously tries to end it or avoid him, but she is drawn to him. She goes into the shop one day to get her phone, not knowing he has been watching her with his hat on, the living cannot see the reapers when they wear their hats, she takes a peach blossom and accidentally knocks the hat off, revealing the Reaper beneath. She is stunned when he reveals he is a grim reaper.

Deok Hwa brings the scroll from his grandfather, Chairman Yoo, to deliver to Goblin. He and Reaper open it up to see what is so important and as soon as Reaper sees the image of Kim Shin’s sister he starts to cry. He is mesmerized by the scroll. Goblin finds out about Reaper looking at the painting from Deok Hwa and confronts him about it. Reaper says he had an emotional response to it, but is not sure why. He suggests it may be a girl he oversaw as a reaper, and that though his heart ached looking at the painting, he had no memories. But later, when the Reaper takes Sunny’s hand and sees her past life, he discovers that she is Kim Shin’s younger sister, Kim Sun.

A kiss from a Reaper will allow you to remember your past life. Being tormented about who he really is, the Reaper kisses Sunny to allow her the opportunity to see her memories of her past life. She is transported back to when he gave her the ring and told her to wear it as a traitor’s sisters or a King’s wife and then they argue over who the real enemy is, Park Joong Hun. The Reaper looks her in the eyes and says, “May all those shining moments of happiness remain and all the hard and sad moments, forget them.” Assuming the memories of him made her sad, he thinks her memory of him is gone. However, at the end, it is revealed that they are not gone. She curses God for trying to take away her memories and tells him to stay out her life and let her handle things her own way. She meets Reaper one last time and then prays that their next encounter in their next life will provide them with more opportunity to meet and stay together. She is the last person he helps to the afterlife from his tea house.

The Bromance(s)

The Grim Reaper

As soon as he gets back Goblin and Eun Tak are enemies because she has to do chores at the house now. She is complaining to Grim Reaper about all of the things she is doing around the house and the Goblin walks in and reveals that he and Eun Tak kissed. The Grim Reaper then becomes jealous and tries to convince Goblin to kick her out so the two of them can live “happily together like before.” The Goblin basically responds with, and who did you live with and breaks his heart, you can see the defeat on the Reaper, and it is gold. These two are comedic gold. We definitely see their relationship grow as they depend on each other more and more throughout the series.

Go Jeong Hyeon – When we were young, we promised we would buy each other’s children pretty clothes, but since I couldn’t do that, I did this instead

Remember in “Part 1” we learned that Eun Tak can see ghosts. She becomes friends with one ghost from her school who doesn’t really ask her for much but just watches over her, talks to her, and congratulates her when she passes her exam. Eun Tak asks her if there is anything she wants, and the ghost responds that she wants flowers for her grave, and she is in Paju. When Eun Tak goes to take flowers, she notices that there is a picture of her, Jeong Hyeon, with her mom. She rushes with the Goblin back to the library and meets with Jeong Hyeon who tells her the story of how her and her mom were friends and she watched over her from afar. She then gives her the code for the locker where all the bank books are hidden, she tells her to use the money for her college tuition. It is a very touching moment.

Deok Hwa

The Goblin’s “nephew”, Deok Hwa, is really an image of God. He appears to be omnipotent and practical in certain circumstances and aloof and silly in others, but it is definitely all part of his plan. Goblin and Reaper confront him in a bar and time stands still, and seriously…when he pushes his hair back….GLOW UP!!! God tells them that he was listening to them the whole time, he just gives them choices and lets them make their own decisions, called fate. He doesn’t decide for them. He tells Goblin that he begged for death, and he brought death to him, yet he is still alive, why? Then he converts into several white butterflies and flutters away leaving silly Deok Hwa on the floor wondering what just happened.

Final verdict: MUST WATCH

Some moments were good, some moments were long and drawn out and not necessary. Some of the Reaper’s scenes, although heartwarming and touching, were not necessary to the overall plot and could have been skipped. The side couple was more believable and emotionally more invested in their relationship than the main couple. Loved the Bromance. It annoyed me that it took so long to meet Park Joong Hun, even though he had a huge part in the story development. I wish we would have known that he was behind some of the events from the beginning and seen some of his background interactions, or even the first interaction he had with the Reaper. But all that being said, “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God” is a must watch. This is a Classic! Top 10 easily! Soundtrack is Top 5.

So there it is, Part 2 of our review of “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God.” What did you think?! Thank you for joining us on this journey. Have a favorite K-drama you think we should review, comment down below!! We look forward to seeing you back again next week!

Up next, “Business Proposal”

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Goblin) - Part 2

Business Proposal

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