It looks like the Counters will have a good time this week. There is some humor, some genuinely sweet moments, and a look at one of the better villains of K-drama land that we have encountered. The way Pil Gwang from The Uncanny Counter stares at or listens to people genuinely makes us scared of what he might end up doing next. He is undoubtedly the show-stealer, and we are only disappointed that he is not dominating the storyline as he should. On the other hand, this episode has started the arc of the Counters being involved in human affairs that would lead them to the evil spirits. This had to happen sooner or later, and we feel it is well-timed for the second season of a series with 12 episodes. Here is the recap of The Uncanny Counter Episode 7.

Spoiler Alert 

Does Ma Ju Seok Join Hwang Pil Gwang?

In the fight that follows after Ma Ju Seok takes on the spirit of Mr. Park, it is clear that he and So Mun are evenly matched. Mun was stronger than Pil Gwang, but if Ju Seok gained a bit more power, he would be able to overtake all of the counters. Right now, as Mun is about to exorcise Ju Seok, he hesitates due to the love he has for the man but is just about to get to business when he is distracted by Pil Gwang and Gelly. Gelly is about to kill Ha Na when Mun and the other counters jump in to save her while Pil Gwang escapes with Ju Seok.

When Ju Seok and Pil Gwang are alone, the spirit tells him that he still doesn’t have control over Ju Seok because his willpower is so strong. Pil Gwang will need to infuriate Ju Seok to an unbearable extent for him to completely let go of his senses and for the spirit to take over. Pil Gwang is up to the task, and when Ju Seok wakes up, he paints himself as another victim of the Baekdu Housing scam and says that he is on the same page as him. In fact, he also tells Ju Seok that Lee Chung Jae, the mastermind behind the scam, is alive, and he inevitably becomes Ju Seok’s next target.

As for the Counters, they realize that they cannot tell Ju Seok the truth about Pil Gwang. The key to this is also the latent rage of Ju Seok, and should that be unleashed in the confrontation, the spirits may combine to form some sort of super-spirit that even the Counters won’t be able to fight. The territory they use to become more powerful will end up being helpful to the super spirit as well, rendering the Counters very weak in the face of it. It looks like there is a reference from history here, and Wi Gen would be kind to let us know that. Meanwhile, the Counters understand that they need to get involved and stop the next housing scam that is about to happen if they don’t want more victims like Ju Seok. Lee Chung Jae, a disgusting man who wears sheet masks but neither flushes nor uses toilet paper, is behind this as well.

In one of the previous episodes, we saw that Lee Chung Jae may have been a kinder person between himself and Mr. Park. However, it turns out he was far more cruel, and when Ju Seok remembers him, we cannot help but understand what he meant when he demanded to know what the point was of sparing the lives of people like Chung Jae and Mr. Park. Mun is worried that they have to fight good people now because they are being possessed by evil spirits, but maybe there should be a discussion as to why taking revenge is always a bad thing.

In the meantime, the counters prevent the first leg of the scam when they rescue a few people from being forced into illegally handing over their houses to the bad guys. On the other hand, Mae Ok meets Jae Yeol and tries to knock some sense into him. She spends the day with him, and later, when Chung Jae’s men try to kill him, she and Mo Tak end up rescuing him as well.

Does Gelly Kill Do Hwi?

The major arc of The Uncanny Counter Episode 7 is about Gelly and the grudges she holds. In the fight at the beginning of the episode, Ha Na said something that had stuck with her. She had said that she had a team behind her, while Gelly was completely alone. This had actually set her thinking about how much she could rely on Pil Gwang for her safety. She remembered how he had not protected other members of the group previously because he “had not felt the need to.” This meant that they were all disposable for him. Why was Gelly risking her life for him in that case? Come to think of it, neither of them really needed to fight the counters at all. They could just make their money and be on their way while keeping out of each other’s paths.

If Pil Gwang had made it an ego tussle with them or said he had some other ulterior motive, what was the incentive for Gelly to be a part of it and risk her life for a man who wouldn’t do the same for her? Frankly, we like her awareness and the look she carries when she goes to prison to kill Wong, to give him a “better send-off”. Pil Gwang is not clear as to how he feels about Gelly’s actions, but he doesn’t want to let go of her yet. She is clear that she will think about herself instead of their mutual benefit, and if Pil Gwang wants her to commit to his goals, he needs to give her some sort of insurance or reward for being on his side. Meanwhile, Gelly is thinking for herself, but that did not stop her from being petty, and she still wants revenge from Ha Na. Ha Na has introduced Do Hwi to the rest of the Counters, who end up liking him, while Jeok Bong continues to sulk in a corner. But she knows that a future between them is not as easy as she would like it to be. Therefore, she breaks up with him on their date.

Do Hwi has still not made sense of the matter when Gelly ends up attacking him and Ha Na. She is about to injure Ha Na when he gets in the way at the end of episode 7, season 2 of The Uncanny Counter. This injury has followed his fall from the stairs, and if we saw it right, she had directly attacked his spine. Ha Na manages to stop Gelly from hurting him further by activating her powers of force at the last second. But Do Hwi is severely injured, and an angry Ha Na gets into a fight with Gelly. How these two women battle it out and who emerges as the winner remains to be seen.

Final Thoughts

After last week’s underwhelming episodes, The Uncanny Counter episode 7 feels like a relief. It moved the story forward and was decently entertaining. It felt like we saw some of the first-season spark of the counters this time, though we would have liked to see more of Jeok Bong as well. The next episode may bring that to us.