Headshot
Episode 16 of Sisyphus: The Myth sees this long, laborious journey come to a contrived end. CEO Park heads back home with a gun in hand. Only, Bingbing is there to stop him. She encourages her boss to follow her, but he refuses to listen. Instead, he heads upstairs to face his younger-self who’s currently in a fight with his wife. Only, it turns out Bingbing is actually Park’s daughter, Ji-Eun. She pleads with him not to go inside, claiming nothing happens this day. And true to her word, little Ji-Eun shows up and sees Park standing with a knife. This is enough for him to stop and let her partner go. Outside the door, Park starts to glitch out, telling Ji-Eun he’s sorry and that everything has changed now. Back at the church, Sigma lets Tae-Sul go and allows him to hold Seo-Hae’s hand while they face him. Sigma chuckles, telling them he’s won again. Although the events leading here have changed slightly – especially given there’s no wedding – they’ve still ended up in the same place. Tae-Sul claims to have a plan though and tells Seo-Hae to trust him going forward. With a laptop in hand, Sigma asks for the Uploader code. Tae-Sul however, begins glitching out and claiming the future can actually change. That change comes in the form of a phone call. It’s Sigma’s phone. He answers and in doing so, sees the entire Uploader shut down. This small act causes Sigma to begin glitching out. The other soldiers all disappear from view, as Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae both wrestle for control against Sigma. Only, Sigma begins glitching out too. A figure up in the rafters, bathed in brilliant white light, suddenly fires a shot and hits Sigma. He’s dead, and the world is seemingly saved. With the figure up in the rafters gone, Tae-Sul works with Seo-Hae to find the Uploader for themselves. Once there, they evade Eddie Kim and begin playing around on the computer, determined to send themselves back through time. Park shows with his group too, having seemingly not glitched out after all. With several syringe shots (and a dollop of completely misplaced humour) Seo-Hae and Tae-Sul are transported using the Uploader to the date Tae-Sul locked Seo-Hae in the bunker. First up, the pair make it to the police station where they find Seo-Hae’s father. They hand over a slip of paper and tell him to phone when they capture Gil-Bok. Next up, they visit Park where it turns out the Tae-Sul we saw there before is a different version, one that whispered to Park that his daughter is close by. Next up, Seo-Hae and Tae-Sul visit Sun who’s still very much alive. It turns out he was actually wearing a bulletproof vest all this time. Tae-Sul found him earlier in the day and handed over the vest. He also told him to show up at Asiamart that night at 8pm. Well, this scene then plays out again within the church, this time with Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae standing up on the rafters. This time though, the scene changes thanks to an act of kindness, as Dong-Gi doesn’t force Sigma to run away, but instead prompts him to put a jacket on. The shots from the sniper come in from before, this time with Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae actually the ones up above. They watch this scene play out and effectively kill Sigma. Only, Seo-Hae doesn’t disappear. Instead, a figure comes bursting in through the front door and shoots Seo-Hae in the stomach. It’s Eddie! He drops off the laptop and demands Tae-Sul make the Uploader. Eddie has been blinded by jealousy all this time, deciding he wants everything that Tae-Sul has. After everything they’ve been through, Tae-Sul decides they should start over and takes up Eddie’s offer to make the Uploader for him. Midway through though, Seo-Hae pleads with him to stop. Eventually Tae-Sul hands over the laptop and holds Eddie up at gunpoint. Tae-Sul realizes what he needs to do and tells Seo-Hae to come and find him. He turns the gun on himself and fires, rewriting time and preventing any of this from happening. Tae-Sul, dude, you could have done that 15 episodes ago and saved us the aggravation. Anyway, everything changes and the world is saved. No one bats an eyelid at these missiles disappearing in the sky while Tae-San awakens and finds himself alone with glitching computer screens. Seo-Hae eventually disappears too, while Eddie drops to his knees and sees all of this take place. Tae-Sul eventually awakens to find himself on the plane ready for his meeting at Quantum & Time. This is the same plane that crash-landed earlier this season. This time though, it’s flying fine. Seo-Hae is with him as we leave this pair in presumed purgatory. Meanwhile, we cut to Sigma who’s now an artist, doing portraits out in the park for different patrons. When he heads home to his gallery, he checks through his diary and sees the numerous different notes about this future that’s not come to pass. Putting glasses on, he looks in the mirror – and at a Forbes magazine showing Tae-Sul on the cover. Smirking, this series comes stumbles over the finish line.
The Episode Review
The visual effects, soundtrack and general action scenes have actually been pretty good throughout Sisyphus: The Myth. The moments in our post-apocalyptic future have been fascinating to watch and the team have done a great job bringing everything to life. It really has been enjoyable to watch at times. However, the writing has been very, very poor. In fact, unanswered questions are the key ingredient here and I genuinely can’t believe how many there are. What’s the deal with the diary? Why was it abandoned midway through the show? Is Sigma’s real motivation just that he hates Tae-Sul and wants his life? If that’s the case then why not kill him earlier on and just take his place at the company? The end scenes show him trying to adopt Tae-Sul’s persona so it’s clear that he’s still got an evil streak about him. How did Sigma survive a nuclear blast by sealing up his windows? How did Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae not get stuck in a time paradox at the end by shooting Sigma dead? Why waste so much time with The Control Bureau, Hyun-Seung and Hyeon-Gi if none of these characters get their comeuppance? Why have we been told nothing can change when time is literally rewritten right in front of our eyes? Would the new and improved bunker not have changed time already? After all, if Seo-Hae’s Mother survived, Seo-Hae herself wouldn’t have had the motivation to go back and stop Tae-Sul. The biggest problem through all of this comes from the big noble sacrifice of Tae-Sul at the end. For the last 15 episodes we’ve all had to watch him fight off numerous goons with lots of casualties and contrivances along the way, refusing to let anyone kill him. Only, at the last minute he decides to be noble and sacrifice himself – but only after Seo-Hae pleads with him not to give in to Eddie’s wishes. While it makes for a heroic, grand statement to close out the plot, it also feels like a messy way to wrap everything up. Still, we could be here all day talking about the issues but for those who have followed along, what did you think of this one? Did you like the ending? Or are you also exasperated at the plot issues? Let us know in the comments below and thanks for reading out recaps!
