Episodes 5 and 6 of No Tail To Tell see the leading pair, Eun-Ho and Si-Yeol, getting closer than ever. So much so that Si-Yeol even tells Eun-Ho that she’s the only person in the world for her, so she should really care for him. I think more than anything, this show is a romance, and though there’s a bit of the fantasy stuff, I don’t think it’s enough to call this show a full-on fantasy like some others we’ve seen in the recent past. To be fair, whenever there’s a gumiho involved, it tends to be a romance, but I guess that holds true for all kinds of supernatural beings in K-dramas. We’ve had two male gumiho shows blow up, and this is the second female gumiho one I’ve seen in recent times. Which do you prefer? I enjoy it both ways, but I prefer a fun gumiho rather than a serious one, as we saw in Tale of the 9-tailed. That was a bit much for me. But with that said, it’s time to jump straight into episodes 5 and 6.
Spoiler Alert
Do Si-Yeol and Eun-Ho Find the 9-Tailed Fox?
No Tail To Tell episode 5 begins with Eun-Ho’s dream of Si-Yeol stabbing her. She’s worried it’s going to turn into reality until she realizes she’s got no spiritual powers anymore, and he’s sitting so close to her because he’s admiring her, not ready to kill her. However, this does make her wary of him anyway, and she tries to stay away from him as much as possible. She hates staying in a local place because it’s too cheap for her standards, but she’s got no choice; she can’t afford anything by herself, and Si-Yeol’s only got a tiny chunk of money thanks to what she did with the switcheroo. Now, Eun-Ho freaks out every time she’s around Si-Yeol, but when he applies some calming balm on her feet, thanks to the trek they’ve just done, she’s happy to be taken care of. True princess treatment. Later, after a little bit of sleep, Eun-Ho notices Si-Yeol isn’t sleeping. He’s drinking and talking about how he’s been living his life as an athlete and wants to try regular things. She says she wants to get drunk too, but it immediately sends her into a daze, thinking about how her sister died after turning human. Finally, because it’s cold, Si-Yeol gives Eun-Ho his jacket, and she makes fun of him for trying to flirt. Meanwhile, Woo-Seok is paranoid about losing everything. I still don’t get how people remember the foxes in this show.
The next day, after some rest, the duo decide to go up again, this time prepared with food, water, and hiking gear. But after spending some time in the cold at night and meeting nobody, Si-Yeol starts to worry if this fox really doesn’t exist. They decide to go a little further before a woman appears to help them. This woman happens to look exactly like Eun-Ho’s sister, Geum-Ho. Now, we don’t actually get her name, so I’m going to refer to her as Geum-Ho for the time being. This Geum-Ho heals Si-Yeol’s twisted ankle after Eun-Ho throws a tantrum, noticing she’s a spitting image of her sister. Eun-Ho can’t believe her sister is still alive, but the second she realizes this other fox doesn’t recognize her, she’s frustrated and walks away.
By the time she comes to her senses after yelling at the heavenly gods, Si-Yeol asks her to come back inside, where “Geum-Ho” presents them with a fire and some food, which happens to be just leaves and grass because she can’t eat the great-great-grandchildren of her friends. Geum-Ho has been alive for 500 years, but when she tries to reverse Eun-Ho’s spell of switching Si-Yeol and Woo-Seok’s lives, while it starts happening, freaking Woo-Seok out, she’s unable to do it. Turns out she’s an 8-tailed fox and wants to be human. Before we know it, she’s begging Eun-Ho to teach her how to become human again because she’s been waiting for 200 years for her to show up, but Eun-Ho, of course, immediately refuses because of the trauma she has because of her sister.
What Is Lee Yoon Up To?
In the meantime, back at home, drunk and annoyed, Lee Yoon suddenly comes to the realization that the boy he kidnapped with the strange man from prison happens to be the same guy he hit with a car 9 years ago. Guess he’s going to go after Si-Yeol, but he’s shocked to learn that he’s got no money. The whole reason a gumiho would come to him would be money, right? For now, Yoon probably isn’t going to do anything about Si-Yeol, but he might realize Eun-Ho will be with him, and if he learns she’s human, it’s all done for her. But also, Yoon does realize there’s a connection between Si-Yeol and Woo-Seok too.
Where Is Eun-Ho From?
In the middle of some really serious stuff, Eun-Ho and Si-Yeol get stranded on the way back to Seoul because his car breaks down. To make matters worse, he’s lost his wallet, so they have no choice but to walk. In the middle of this, they get talking, and Eun-Ho reveals she does have a house, but this house happens to be in Myohyangsan Mountain in North Korea. Obviously, she has to complain about human beings creating boundaries.
What Does Geum-Ho Learn?
Back in the mountains, Geum-o gets a visit from Pagun when she finds Si-Yeol’s wallet. Now, when she gets to Seoul, she tells Si-Yeol and Eun-Ho that the way she can fix their problems is by switching lives with Eun-Ho. This would make her human, and it would give Eun-Ho her powers back, but Eun-Ho is certain she’s getting scammed. Geum-Ho is certainly way too innocent and hasn’t even ventured out of the mountains much. Something’s certainly off here, but we can’t even be sure this is exactly what Pagun said to her. I do think it was Pagun, but I wonder if it was someone else who looked like him, or worse, Do-Cheol in disguise?
What Does Woo-Seok Say?
Turns out Si-Yeol actually borrowed the car from one of his football buddies, and they’re upset because he hasn’t returned it yet. The only other car available to him for early morning deliveries is a luxury one, and the guy is seriously averse to the idea because it’s embarrassing to drive a supercar for morning deliveries that you can’t even afford gas for. In the meantime, the duo reach home in a random delivery truck, and the football guys miss Si-Yeol (lucky for him), but they have a new visitor, and it’s a worried Woo-Seok. Before Eun-Ho can shoo him away, Geum-Ho shows up and announces in front of him that Eun-Ho has lost her powers.
But before Geum-Ho showed up, Woo-Seok requested Si-Yeol to give him a week in his life. He says the life he could never even dream of suddenly became his in an instant, and he should’ve asked Si-Yeol face-to-face about it, but he was a coward. Si-Yeol tells him he can do what he likes because they won’t be switched forever anyway. Si-Yeol has only one condition, he says: when he wants to switch back, Woo-Seok’s got to do it, no questions asked. But that’s when Geum-Ho showed up and revealed everything in front of Woo-Seok. Woo-Seok immediately clings to the conversation and wonders if the switch could be permanent. Eun-Ho gets mad at him and starts to challenge the guy, but Si-Yeol tells her she’s being too harsh. Woo-Seok says he just wants to help, but should we believe him? There is something a little bit selfish about him, but we do know him as a good human so far. Anyway, he’s about to tell Si-Yeol that he wants to help him, but Eun-Ho tells Geum-Ho to erase his memories. The problem is her powers aren’t good enough, so Woo-Seok has the slightest whiff of this memory that, in his mind, never happened.
Woo-Seok gets a call from his dad, who then yells at him, asking where he is. He simply says he’s come to Korea because it’s preseason, but his dad reminds him that he still has practice and that he’s upset the new coach already.
What Happens When Eun-Ho Tries To Do A Good Deed?
Now, after Woo-Seok leaves, Si-Yeol has two foxes under his wings, but Geum-Ho might be even more innocent than Eun-Ho ever was. Eun-Ho takes it upon herself to show her the worst parts of humanity because she doesn’t want her to turn human like her sister, but Si-Yeol, of course, has other plans. Eun-Ho straight-up takes Geum-Ho to the nearest precinct (I think?) and shows her all the criminals who have just been arrested. She’s showing her how much crime there is in the human world (the scene felt straight out of “Tangled”). But, on the other hand, Si-Yeol goes on a mission to show her the good side by taking her to a buffet where she gets to eat a ton of meat and truly enjoy food. However, Eun-Ho doesn’t hesitate to show her the class difference between her, eating the meal, and the people cleaning up behind closed doors.
Next stop is the amusement park, and it looks like all 3 of them are having a blast, and Geum-Ho even uses her powers to make the rollercoaster go twice. Anyway, Si-Yeol seems to be falling harder for Eun-Ho. On the other hand, though, Do-Cheol continues to be a dangerous figure who kills a shaman to steal her wooden beads, an important tool in Buddhist practices. Before she’s killed, she calls him out on defying Heaven and devouring all divine spirits (ooh, spooky). He’s sounding a bit like Thanos to me now.
At the end of the day at the amusement park, Si-Yeol and Eun-Ho are alone for a bit, and he notices her ankles bleeding. Seeing him worry for her, she gets excited and asks him if he’s worried for her. He then honestly tells her that she’s the only person close to him whom he can think about now. Literally, he’s all alone in the world, so they should worry for each other and look out for each other. Eun-Ho is both surprised and touched, and this really resonates with her because technically, she’s the same.
Eun-Ho then asks Geum-Ho if she still wants to become human after telling her that she knew a gumiho who became human and died after a miserable life. Geum-Ho simply asks Eun-Ho if she was happy that day; she happened to have been, and that’s all that really matters to her, so yes, she still wants to be human, to be able to experience true happiness. Eun-Ho is reminded of her sister turning into an old grandmother and dying in the mountains. Also, Si-Yeol doesn’t realize this yet, but his switcheroo has also changed the lives of those around him completely, i.e., he thinks he’s mistakenly seen Yeon-Su, his old manager, with two kids now. Before parting ways, Geum-Ho tells Eun-Ho she’ll just get her to do her good deeds so that she can become a human soon. Eun-Ho doesn’t really have a choice but to comply. Ironically, her first idea is to sit across a bridge on the Han River and wait for someone to try to kill themselves and then save them. Obviously, Si-Yeol knocks some sense into her. But hey, look, it’s another anti-suicidal campaign in its own weird K-drama way. She even considers burning down a place with criminals in it—well, getting Si-Yeol to do it—so she can save the people there.
In No Tail To Tell episode 6’s ending, a real fire breaks out in a preschool nearby, and Si-Yeol immediately goes in to save the kids. Seeing him not hesitate, Eun-Ho also goes in, because she’s the one who has to do the good deeds. They save a bunch of kids immediately, but Eun-Ho learns one kid hasn’t come out yet. She doesn’t know that Si-Yeol’s brought the kid out already. He goes back in for her, and she’s broken through a door already, saving herself, but she can’t be entirely independent as an ex-gumiho, no? He has to save her from a moment of almost death to make her realize how much she cares for him. The episode ends with Eun-Ho hugging Si-Yeol because she’s genuinely worried and thought he’d died. Oh, this romance is so on.
