The Witch: Episodes 5-6 » Dramabeans Korean drama recaps

AdminMarch 4, 2025

The Witch: Episodes 5-6

by solstices

Dedicating his every waking moment to unraveling the mystery of our alleged witch and the tragedy that follows in her footsteps, our self-made detective returns to his roots in order to trace the patterns of data. Along the way, he meets an unexpected ally who helps to further refine his hypothesis.

EPISODES 5-6

Returning to his hometown of Taebaek, Dong-jin meets up with his old classmates to prod them for information. Enlisting their help in collecting data on the accidents surrounding Mi-jung, Dong-jin then rifles through the school’s storage shed for past records. Sure enough, the string of accidents only occurred during Mi-jung’s enrollment in the school, with over ten cases each year.

However, the alumni testimonials turn out to be inconsistent. While some boys clearly remember being attracted to Mi-jung, other connections seem tenuous at best. Not to mention the varying degrees of severity when it comes to the injuries they sustained. Then Dong-jin pulls out his measuring tape, and voila — the accident victims all sat within a 10-meter radius of Mi-jung.

With that, Dong-jin figures out the relationship between the variables, allowing him to formulate several core hypotheses. If a person is within 10 meters of Mi-jung, holds a conversation with her, confesses their feelings, and Mi-jung knows their name — then they will die. Dong-jin can’t narrow down the specifics yet, though, and so he continues on his quest to interview the accident victims.

One classmate, SEO DA-EUN (Kwon Han-sol), confesses that she started the rumor about Mi-jung being a witch because she’d been jealous that her crush — a.k.a. IM IK-JONG the church oppa — liked Mi-jung. Dong-jin meets with Ik-jong, but he hems and haws, claiming to barely remember Mi-jung. Hmm, is Ik-jong being evasive, or has he really forgotten? Surely he’d remember the time she supposedly caused him to get stung by a wasp and have a severe allergic reaction…

Next on Dong-jin’s list is the subway guy LEE HYUN-CHUL (Omg, he’s not dead after all! I get to watch more of Lee Bong-jun!!) who works as a movie theater usher. Mi-jung frequented the movie theater past midnight in order to avoid other theatergoers, and Hyun-chul soon developed a crush on her.

Chastened, Hyun-chul expresses remorse for following Mi-jung to the subway, musing that his collapse must have been punishment for his actions. (See, Dong-jin? Don’t stalk people!) Oddly enough, Hyun-chul meets all the criteria, but he narrowly escaped death — he’d been sent to the hospital just in time.

Peering at Hyun-chul’s name tag, Dong-jin realizes the reason for the anomaly. The cinema employees all go by nicknames, and Hyun-chul’s is “Brad” (since he likes Brad Pitt, hee) — in other words, Hyun-chul has never mentioned his real name to Mi-jung. Dong-jin’s hypothesis still stands.

With that settled, it’s time for our resourceful researcher to test his next premise. Dong-jin’s apartment is just over 10 meters away from Mi-jung’s — and the moment Mi-jung walks out into her rooftop space, Dong-jin’s measuring tape abruptly retracts and nicks his neck. Looks like Dong-jin isn’t safe either; as it turns out, he meets all the criteria too. Mi-jung knows his name, since the sunshade over her high school bench had been credited to both Dong-jin and his mom. The only boxes he hasn’t ticked off yet are a conversation and a confession.

Next, Dong-jin approaches Mi-jung’s sole friend Eun-shil, who’s been close to Mi-jung since their college days nearly a decade ago. Eun-shil points out that Dong-jin’s close surveillance of Mi-jung is creepy, questioning his intentions, but she relents when he explains his wish to help Mi-jung live a normal life. “I always wished someone would lead Mi-jung out into the world,” remarks Eun-shil wistfully, since she’s never succeeded despite her best efforts.

Rewinding to their college days, we learn that the accidents — and thus the rumors — had followed in Mi-jung’s wake, culminating in a professor falling to his death. Overenthusiastic sunbae Eun-shil reached out to her then — not out of pity, but because she’d felt an instant connection. Though Mi-jung ended up dropping out of university and moving into a shady part of town, Eun-shil persisted in reaching out to her, despite Mi-jung’s reticence.

The turning point comes when Mi-jung’s place gets broken into. Terrified and alone, Mi-jung finally calls Eun-shil, who swoops in like a mama hen to usher Mi-jung into a safer neighborhood. Eun-shil’s whirlwind gaiety eventually has Mi-jung lowering her guard and cracking a tiny smile, and that’s how the girls’ friendship slowly blossomed.

Back in the present, Eun-shil joins hands with Dong-jin to investigate the accidents (and interrogate the college boys, LOL). That allows them to narrow down the hypothesis even more — being in Mi-jung’s vicinity for ten minutes spells danger. Resolving to test the hypothesis himself, Dong-jin gets himself hired as a deliveryman to drop off groceries at Mi-jung’s house. And with that, our leads finally come face to face for the first time.

I still think this show could have been condensed into fewer episodes with tighter pacing, but I do admit I’m intrigued by the specifics of Mi-jung’s supposed curse. With all the emphasis on vicinity this week, I wonder if the converse is what actually triggers the curse? The high school boys met their end after parting ways with Mi-jung, the college boys sustained their injuries while Mi-jung was hastily escaping from them, and — if I’m reading the measurements on Dong-jin’s fancy distance-measuring binoculars correctly — Mi-jung had been well over ten meters away from the window that her professor fell out of. Similarly, Hyun-chul only suffered his cardiac arrest after Mi-jung exited the subway.

It’d be interestingly ironic if the solution is to stay close rather than run away, since it’s the painfully unintuitive choice and the exact opposite of everything Mi-jung has been doing. Perhaps Mi-jung’s “curse” is an unconscious manifestation of her wish to have someone stay by her side? Maybe it’s protecting her by lashing out at those who raise her hopes only to ditch her in the end? But if that’s the case, what gave rise to it? I’m curious about the origin and nature of the curse, as well as how much autonomy it has. On that note, now that our leads have finally met, I’m hoping Mi-jung will be afforded more agency in tackling her curse — I want her to step out into the world of her own accord and be the center of her own story.