The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 20

푸른 바다의 전설: 제20회

Joon-jae leaves it to Shim Cheong whether to erase his memory or not before she goes back to the ocean. She says goodbye to everyone she met in Seoul, shaking their hands. Joon-jae wakes up with a pink pearl on his side table, a kind mermaids shed thanks to a happy memory. Three years later, the gang still lives together along with Joon-jae’s mother, who now owns all of their business shares. He, on the other hand, graduates from law school and is now an intern at the same prosecutor’s office they scammed before. They have no recollection of Shim Cheong, but Joon-jae inexplicably cries from time to time because he misses someone, although he doesn’t know who. Shim Cheong resurfaces in Seoul. She drops by Joon-jae’s place to visit, but nobody recognizes her, except him. He reveals that he has always kept a diary of everything that happened even before she erased his memories. He requests to be assigned at Seokcho where he bought a house in front of the sea. There they await the birth of their first child.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 19

푸른 바다의 전설: 제19회

History repeats itself with Chi-hyun once again striking the lethal blow, but this time around it’s the mermaid who jumps in front of her lover to save him. Both mother and son are arrested. Chi-hyun takes the easy way out, injecting himself with the poison. He dies in his mother’s arms. The Murderer remains at large. Later, he seeks hypnosis again to regain his lost memories. A prophecy dooms him into a life of eternal confusion. Shi-ah wakes up from a dream where she is the wife of a young Dam-ryeong, sneaking out to meet his lover. When Nam-doo sees manager Nam, a flashback is triggered showing he spared the man’s life instead of betraying him. He wakes up from his coma, calling Joon-jae “Dam-ryeong” and Nam-doo “Park-moo”. Shim Cheong swiftly recovers despite the bullet hitting both her heart’s right and left ventricles, once again puzzling doctors with her regenerative ability. Joon-jae erases her records to prevent her secret from being exposed to the world. He returns her to the ocean.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 18

푸른 바다의 전설: 제18회

Hysterical, Joon-jae beats Chi-hyun to a pulp. Nam-doo starts to threaten Shim Cheong, albeit subtly. She threatens him back. Seo-hee puts on a convincing show before contacting their lawyers to expedite the inheritance transfer. Joon-jae’s mother attends the funeral and a confrontation ensues in the bathroom. Shim Cheong intervenes, touching Seo-hee’s hands and seeing her recent memories. Going back to the mansion, they find all the hidden evidence and Seo-hee is arrested for murder, but released because circumstantial evidence is not admissible without a confession. Chi-hyun approaches Nam-doo. He easily switches sides and delivers Joon-jae to Chi-hyun and Seo-hee, staging his suicide. In the end, it’s all a setup. Nam-doo just played along and remained a loyal friend. Seo-hee is arrested after her confession is recorded. Thinking Nam-doo betrayed them, Tae-ho and Shim Cheong come to the rescue. As a hysterical Chi-hyun grabs an officer’s gun, Shim Cheong jumps in front of Joon-jae to block the bullet meant for him.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 17

푸른 바다의 전설: 제17회

Shim Cheong manages to erase the Murderer’s memories. The gang leaves the mansion before Chi-hyun gets back. When he does, his father lies about Joon-jae being in the house. Shi-ah’s sister-in-law takes Joon-jae’s mother along to her meeting. There, she once again crosses paths with Kang Seo-hee, who reveals that she and Chi-hyun will be inheriting everything. She later meets up with the Murderer, and with his memories wiped clean, he becomes her obedient puppet. She brings him home in secret. She then brings her husband’s medication and sees him throw it into the trash bin after he thought she left. Shim Cheong treats Joon-jae coldly. She then gathers her two friends to say goodbye. When Joon-jae confronts Chi-hyun about their father’s condition and he let’s it slip that Shim Cheong met her the other night, he finds out why she’s been acting that way. Nam-doo gradually puts two on two together, heads to an aquarium and asks what the fetching price for a mermaid is. Joon-jae’s father is poisoned to death.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 16

푸른 바다의 전설: 제16회

After the mother-and-son reunion, they all rendezvous for Shim Cheong’s birthday. Afterwards, Joon-jae’s mother confirms that the woman related to the Murderer is none other than his stepmother. Chi-hyun finds out that the Murderer is his real father. Shi-ah once again drags Tae-oh to drink with her, confessing everything. He gives her valuable advice. Manager Nam survives Chi-hyun’s attempt on his life. He dreams about his past, where Chi-hyun and Nam-doo were allies against Dam-ryeong. The gang lures the stepmother out of the house with Shi-ah’s sister-in-law’s help. They enter the mansion to gather evidence and place a bug. Joon-jae finds his dad in his room and discovers his true condition. He tries to rescue him, but he refuses. Shim Cheong takes care of Chi-hyun. After it is revealed that everything is a ploy, he leaves her and rushes home. The Murderer chases her. She outwits him and erases his memories, but acquires his in the process, including that of his past life. Now she knows what Dam-ryeong and Se-hwa’s fate really was.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 15

푸른 바다의 전설: 제15회

Joon-jae admits that he knows everything. Shim Cheong clarifies how their lives are tied now, and how she will die if he dies. He then blames himself for her fate, feeling responsible for her life. He now thinks that he must return her to the sea to save her. He takes her to the gallery and tells her the tragic love story between Dam-ryeong and Se-hwa. He changes the details and lies about the two ending up happily ever after. She proposes to erase just half of his day's memories to reassure him, but he disagrees. Joon-jae’s stepmother now knows all about his mom’s whereabouts and her cover up. Now Shi-ah’s household knows everything, too. Shi-ah goes clubbing to get drunk after the info overload and the whole gang comes to join her, ending in a Shi-ah/Shim Cheong dance showdown. Chi-hyun removes Manager Nam’s respirator, almost killing him in the process. Shim Cheong throws herself a party pretending it’s her birthday. She invites Joon-jae’s mother. Mother and son finally meet, thanks to her.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 14

푸른 바다의 전설: 제14회

Joon-jae wakes up from his hypnosis. The Murderer shows up because he is seeing the same shrink, but remains hidden and listens to the analysis of the hypnosis session in secret. Joon-jae tries to convince Shim Cheong that if something happens to him, she should go on living. She doesn’t agree. If he dies, she dies. His mother finds out through Shi-ah’s sister-in-law all about what really happened to him. She goes back to the mansion and promises to bring his son back where he belongs. Her rival almost gets her killed, but Shim Cheong saves her again. Later on, the Murderer also undergoes hypnosis and finds out that it wasn’t HIM responsible for the death of Dam-ryeong and Se-hwa. Back in modern day Seoul, Chi-hyeon takes over the company and befriends Shim Cheong. To give her time in the pool, Joon-jae orders everyone to get out of the house. Curious, Nam doo goes back home and discovers her secret. She tricks him into shaking her hand, erasing his memories. She also finds out that Joon-jae can hear her thoughts.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 13

푸른 바다의 전설: 제13회

Joon-jae’s mom and Shi-ah’s sister-in-law have a heart-to-heart talk over soju, the former about her ex-husband and the latter about her investment issues with his stepmother. His father is tricked into affixing his stamp on a doctored last will and testament. Later that day, he falls down the stairs and slips into a coma. Shim Cheong is on cloud nine after he invites her to sleep next to him. He and Park Moo disagree over his reluctance to do more scams because of her. Shi-ah then takes his mother to his house, not knowing that the two are related. They are welcomed by Shim Cheong, who saved the woman earlier from a pickpocket. Shi-ah discovers the connection soon enough, seeing a mother-and-son photo in his room. They hurry up and leave before he arrives. Another hypnosis session shows him how Dam-ryeong was sent to exile, but convinced the royal guard to turn around just in time for him to save Se-hwa from their enemy’s spear. Seeing her dead lover, she thrusts the spear into her body.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 12

푸른 바다의 전설: 제12회

FLASHBACK: A royal decree places Dam-ryeong under house arrest, putting Se-hwa’s life in danger. In modern day Seoul, Shim Cheong is also left vulnerable after Joon-jae’s arrest. She boards the Murderer’s taxi and is drugged. He convinces the police to trail the taxi, leading them to an abandoned hospital where the Murderer attempts to prove that she’s a mermaid. She threatens him with a curse, causing him to flee right before Joon-jae locates her. He bargains with the police, telling them he will cooperate in catching the Murderer, since they can’t charge them with anything concrete anyway. He keeps on stalking her thoughts, but it becomes burdensome as she thinks non-stop about his real intentions. Chi-Yeon asks about his real lineage after hearing his stepfather modify his will for everything to go to Joon-jae. Joon-jae’s mother heads to the hospital to pick up some meds. She runs into her ex-husband but he doesn't recognize her due to his failing eyesight. Chi-yeon gets drunk and warns Joon-jae that he can’t protect his father anymore.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 11

푸른 바다의 전설: 제11회

Contrary to Shim Cheong’s belief, Joon-jae pursues her even after discovering the truth. The Murderer dreams about Dam-ryeong about to behead him with his sword. Shim Cheong runs away and spends the night at a jjimjjilbang after seeing it done so many times in Korean dramas. When bullies steal her bag to get her money and turn her phone on, Joon-jae is able to track her, only to find his stepbrother there with her, who was the one who brought her there the night before. Joon-jae stays with her there but irks the other guests with him being overprotective of her and her aversion to water. Ge goes out with her on a date and asks her to wait as he picks up a gift. He gets caught by the police, as the Murderer sets his sights on Shim Cheong. Digging deeper into the Murderer’s records, it’s revealed that he moved in at the same time with a woman who married twice and got widowed twice, with both husbands going blind before they died. That woman is Joon-jae’s stepmother, and it looks like she’s at it again with his father now going blind.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 10

푸른 바다의 전설: 제10회

Joon-jae asks Shim Cheong about her dream where he saves her, but she lies about not remembering it. She brings the little girl she befriended home because she cut school not wanting to go, given how the other kids bully her. She later finds out that the kid can hear her inner voice, and makes her promise not to tell anyone. Joon-jae teaches Shim Cheong how to drink alcohol and she gets drunk, blabbering incoherently before admitting that she is “not human”. Her hangover recuperation capability proves to be really fast, snapping out of her drunken stupor every time she’s about to admit that she’s a mermaid. The gang heads to Shi-ah’s home to carry out their scam. Shi-ah almost catches them when she comes back until Tae-Oh steps in lying to her saying that he loves her just to divert her attention. They get out of there before she comes back. Shim Cheong catches up, thinking but not telling him that he is a con-artist, not knowing that he can also somehow hear her inner voice. She admits to him that she’s a mermaid before she runs away.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 9

푸른 바다의 전설: 제9회

Joon-jae asks Shim Cheong not to leave, before he collapses due to his wounds. Unconscious, he meets Dam-ryeong in his dream, who warns him that history will repeat itself and that he must protect her. The gang identifies their assailant as Ma Dae-young (성동일), the escaped murderer. Because of this, he becomes overprotective of her, even criticizing her friendship with the neighborhood hobo. Joon-jae, his stepbrother, and his father all cross paths at the hospital. Emotions run high and heated words are exchanged between father and son. As he relives all the pain of their separation, he rejects every move he makes towards reconciliation. Shim Cheong becomes his crying shoulder and confidante. They kiss. The next morning, he cooks for her. Shi-ah drops by with more intel on the site of Kim Dam-ryeong’s family home. In the past timeline, he buries a clue for Joon-jae, his future self, to find. Shi-ah finds it at the excavation site and shows it to him, putting his doubts to rest.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 8

푸른 바다의 전설: 제8회

Figuring out that Shim Cheong must be naked in the pool, Joon-jae doesn’t look and he doesn’t find out that she’s a mermaid. Shi-ah shows him the Joseon era vase with the mermaid drawing on it. He consults a doctor regarding short term memory loss and they use hypnosis for him to seek what he’s trying to find. Shim Cheong wonders how long her heart can last before it falters. She asks him directly if he has any plans to love her in the future, but he responds that it is not that easy. Nevertheless, it gets both of them thinking about the weird phenomenon that is love. Shi-ah asks about Joon-jae’s mom after being counseled that the way to win his heart is by befriending his mother, not knowing that it’s the same woman she is mistreating at home. The murderer tricks Joon-jae into meeting him. He recognizes him from his past life. A fight ensues, but he comes prepared. Shim Cheong’s merman friend finally succumbs to heartache. She meets the human he fell in love with and they get to have a heart to heart talk.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 7

푸른 바다의 전설: 제7회

FLASHBACK: Dam-ryeong finds Se-hwa bound in a stockroom. He takes her away and tells her about a dream he had in which they were born again and found a way back into each other’s arms. At present, Shim Cheong tells Joon-jae about a good guy she met, him not knowing that it’s actually him she’s referring to. He dreams about Dam-ryeong’s friend just as his dad’s right hand man figures in a car accident orchestrated by the murderer, who almost gets caught by the police. A flashback reveals how Joon-jae started as a con-man, with his mentor tricking him at first when he pretended to be a private investigator helping him find his mother. Shim Cheong meets a merman living as a lifeguard who gives her valuable advice: the tears they shed become pearls and can be used to get money. He also warns her that she has a time limit and that her heart will soon harden if the person she loves doesn’t love her back. As the gang heads out for another day of scamming, she takes a dip in the pool, not knowing that Joon-jae has come back for his phone.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 6

푸른 바다의 전설: 제6회

FLASHBACK: Se-hwa is saved last minute by one of Dam-ryeong’s friends, hiding her in a cave before falling off a cliff to his death being pursued by their enemies. In modern day Seoul, Joon-jae finds Shim Cheong’s flyers and phone scattered at the Namsan complex entrance, figuring out that something must have happened to her. She was brought to the hospital by his stepbrother, but can’t be identified due to lack of ID’s. Searching around, he finally finds her unconscious and cold with a body temperature of 29C. She goes into cardiac arrest as he watches, but wakes up minutes later after he holds her hand. His sidekicks in crime, mentor Park Moo (이희준) and hacker Tae-oh (신원호) arrive with a fake ID for her so they can get her out. The stepbrothers meet at the hospital, prompting a confrontation. The gang targets one of the hospital’s greedy officers, making him admit the truth to a woman seeking justice for her daughter who died of maltreatment. Joon-jae takes Shim Cheong to a ski resort so she can experience snow.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 5

푸른 바다의 전설: 제5회

FLASHBACK: Dam-ryeong brings Se-hwa home, but a nasty rumor is circulated by his enemies blaming the town’s misfortune on an evil mermaid. A swordfight ensues, and the arrival of a shaman puts her life in danger. Back in modern day Seoul, Joon-jae disregards his own safety and speeds through the checkpoint to save Shim Cheong, who is almost caught by the murderer sent by his stepmother. He lies to the police and gets away with what he has done. When Shi-ah comes over to visit, an altercation occurs between the two women. He tells her that she has to leave if she insists on not telling him what really happened to them in Spain. She promises him that she’ll tell the truth if he meets her at N-Tower during the first snowfall. He gives her a smartphone with a tracking device so he’ll be aware of her whereabouts all the time, stalking her and making her hobo life easier for her. As she hurries up to Namsan when the first snow falls, she is hit by his stepbrother Chi-hyun’s (이지훈) car who is secretly trailing him.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 4

푸른 바다의 전설: 제4회

FLASHBACK: Se-hwa surfaces and ventures inland to look for Dam-ryeong, her one true love. She is subsequently attacked by the men of her original captor, but he comes to save her. In modern day Seoul, Joon-jae also comes to Shim Cheong’s rescue, pretending to be a police investigator to get her out of the aquarium break-in incident. He presses her for answers, but she won’t divulge anything. She follows him around anyway. He is dismissive, but now he can’t get rid of her. Again. He brings her over to his house with the intention of eventually getting the information he needs from her. Shi-ah comes over and meets her. The two then suddenly have equal disdain toward one another. Now it’s Joon-jae’s wicked stepmother sending goons to kill him, breaking out a murderer from prison to go after his stepson to make sure he doesn’t get the inheritance he deserves. Apparently, he is a chaebol heir, but decided to run away from his father as an act of rebellion because he sent his mother away.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 3

푸른 바다의 전설: 제3회

FLASHBACK: Young mermaid Se-hwa met Dam-ryeong when they were kids. Given how mermaids can’t produce legs until they are older, they had to part. When he drowns himself in grief, she rescues him and plants a kiss on his lips. A mermaid’s kiss erases memories. Back in modern day, Shim Cheong’s kiss does the same for Joon-jae, although she leaves him her bracelet as a remembrance. Back in Seoul, he struggles to remember how he got the piece of jewelry, but his memory is wiped clean of everything about her. She decides to swim all the way there to follow him. Once on land, she relies on a hobo lifestyle to survive and heads to the one place she remembers him mentioning: 63 Building. Lost inside, she finds the aquarium and jumps in. His admirer, KAIST researcher Cha Shi-ah (신혜선) brings him seaweed soup for his birthday which his lost mom, who now works as her maid, cooked herself. Haunted by past memories, he goes to 63 Building’s aquarium where she used to take him. There, he crosses paths with Shim Cheong once again.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 2

푸른 바다의 전설: 제2회

Joon-jae brings Shim Cheong back to his place because she doesn’t seem to know anyone and he is worried about her. What he doesn’t know is that the same smartphone he’s been using all along has been tracked by the Myeongdong Capital CEO that he scammed, and she has sent a rather large delegation of gangster loan sharks all the way to Spain to pursue him at all costs. And so the mermaid gets entangled with the con artist’s bleak immediate future. She proves to be an asset, though, serving as a fighting machine defending him from his assailants. Her superhuman strength is really effective in warding off the goons, but the chase continues along the Mediterranean Coast. On the way, they manage to squeeze in a scam involving religious worshipers before they end up at the Tower of Hercules, on the other side of the Iberian peninsula facing the Atlantic where he was abandoned by his mother as a child. There, the duo is cornered, until she takes his hand and forces him to jump with her into the deep blue sea.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 1

푸른 바다의 전설: 제1회

1586. A fierce typhoon ravages a village in Gangwon, and the townsfolk enjoy a windfall of fresh fish, including a mermaid who gets stuck in a cave. The young new town head frees her from captivity. As he rows his boat and she swims beside it, she reaches out her hand for him to hold, which according to superstition could very well be as lucky as it is bad fortune. Flash forward to modern day Seoul, Heo Joon-jae (이민호) is the "Harry Potter of Con Artists,” achieving his material needs through scams. His latest venture brings him to an exclusive resort on the shores of the Mediterranean. A trail of food items leads him to his closet where Shim Cheong (전지현), a modern age mermaid, has sneaked in after a storm maroons her inland. When he realizes that she’s wearing a 400-year old jadeite bracelet worth $6 million, he does his best to get his hands on her jewelry, taking advantage of her cluelessness. When his conscience kicks in, he comes back for her. As their hands touch under the pouring rain, a new story begins.