The Home Stretch
Episode 15 of Sisyphus: The Myth begins with Tae-Sul heading down to the basement to find Sigma. He monologues, bemoaning his luck and how fate seems to have favored Tae-Sul rather than him. Determined not to die at Tae-Sul’s hands, the eve of the explosions saw Sigma ready to kill himself. Only, as he strung himself up with a noose, an explosion rocked the house and sent him crashing to the ground. As the nuclear war begins, ravaging Seoul, the explosion apparently didn’t affect him or his house because checks notes he sealed up the windows and hid under a table. With nuclear radiation unable to infiltrate the sealed glass, Sigma survived on scraps for several months. Eventually, he decided to step outside. There, he found the entire place a desolate wasteland… except his own house. This vision is different to that of Seo-Hae’s green world, showing a vast wasteland of nothingness before him. Then again, this could be a separate part of Seoul so we’ll let it slide for now. Tae-Sul meanwhile, wracks his brain to try and figure out who Sigma could have been hiding as all this time. Dressed as someone who can get around anywhere with ID, he realizes this could be a cleaner. Down in the cleaning staff room, he switches the lights on and observes the surroundings. The kettle whistles, eventually leading to the lights shutting off completely from the main breaker. This is, of course, Sigma’s doing. Tae-Sul begins searching down in the basement, firing his gun blindly and trying to find where Sigma is hiding. He tells Tae-Sul to enjoy the darkness as he tries to figure out where Sigma is. Meanwhile, Eddie Kim successfully finishes creating the Uploader, but only because of Tae-Sul’s intervention and help. Seo-Jin tries to remind him of this, but he simply slaps her across the face. She hands over her ring, telling him outright that he’ll never be able to beat Tae-Sul, and walks away. Sun arrives at the shelter and communicates with Seo-Hae through the intercom. She talks him into helping break her out. Just before she leaves, the Control Bureau catch wind that they’ve found Seo-Hae. Seo-Hae however, realizes something is up as Sun starts driving toward the airport. She tells him to pull over, unwilling to listen, as Sun reveals the truth. He doesn’t want her to die and after what Sigma told him, he wants to get out of Seoul completely. Seo-Hae refuses to listen and remains fixated on helping Tae-Sul. Sun then makes a big decision and decides to save Seo-Hae. He stands in front of her and takes the bullets designed for her as Hyeon-Gi empties the clip. Seo-Hae is enraged and after beating the Control Bureau puppet down, he tells the boy to get lost. Back with Sun, he hands over his watch and tells her it can be a little uncomfortable to wear to begin with. Determined to get revenge, Seo-Hae walks back along the long bridge… even though there’s a perfectly good car next to her. Meanwhile, Hyeon-Gi shows back up at the Control Bureau, which is completely empty save for Hwang Hyun-Seung. Hyeon-Gi has a gun but he holds off firing for now. He listens in shock as the boss talks about how they needed to secure the future. With everything set in motion, Hyung-Seung admits the truth, confirming that his Mother didn’t die at the hands of Seo-Hae, it was actually him all along. Hyeon-Gi decides not to kill him though as he doesn’t want to kill anyone (except Sun). Eventually he drops the gun and walks away. We then cut to the year 2035 as we see the Uploader in action. It’s survived the nuclear blast which is a miracle unto itself and paves way for Seo-Hae and her Father to burst into the lab and kill numerous soldiers operating inside. Together, they fight their way through but find themselves completely surrounded by soldiers. Sigma shows up though and hands over a card confirming his identity. Seo-Hae vows to stop the war by saving Tae-Sul and killing him. Sigma chuckles confidently and eventually walks away, allowing her to step through the Uploader. This coincides with those moments in the first episode with Seo-Hae told by her Father to keep running. This catches us up to the present where Tae-Sul happens to be in the church with Sigma. It’s here he reveals that he actually sent back some of the nukes through the Uploader, explaining his “the future is already here” message. Anyway, Seo-Hae eventually shows up and blasts her way through to the church. A shoot-out ensues, as Seo-Hae hesitates while Sigma holds Tae-Sul up at gunpoint. Sigma encourages her to shoot him but Seo-Hae is not able to do it. This is it. This is the moment that can stop the war and everything that’s happened but Seo-Hae is too in love with Tae-Sul to pull the trigger. However, now it becomes clear that Sigma intentionally ordered his troops not to shoot her to make the pair grow closer together and fall in love. Sigma planned the entire thing, staging their romance and making sure everything plays out the way it should. As the episode ends, we’re left with a big cliffhanger for tomorrow’s finale.
The Episode Review
Sisyphus: The Myth finally catches us up to the moments of the war as we’re left with a hurried attempt at wrapping up all these loose ends by blaming poor aiming on Sigma’s rule and pulling the strings all this time. Understanding that Sigma kept Tae-Sul alive so he could make him fall in love with Seo-Hae and build the Uploader just seems like a bit of a convoluted way of doing things. After all, we’ve already seen that actually Eddie Kim has been building the Uploader, using Tae-Sul’s schematics and ideas (unless I’ve interpreted those scenes wrong. In which case, do let me know in the comments!) But really, despite some nice ideas, the show has completely butchered its landing and execution. Nothing here makes any logical sense, especially when you break it down and examine each of the different characters’ journeys up until this point. That’s before even mentioning the whole plan which has obviously gone awry. I won’t break it all down here of course, but those who have stuck with this show and read along with the recaps, thank you for doing so and bearing with me while I riff on this series. If you’ve enjoyed this one, I’m happy for you but Sisyphus: The Myth is a show full of contrivances and plot holes hat are hard to ignore. Still, the finale is up next. Hopefully that will be an improvement!
