Dead-End Job Episode 4 Recap

A race in lane eight

At the 2014 SNT National Track and Field Meet, the commentators introduce the middle school girls' 200-meter final. The favorite is Byeon Ji-yoon of Cheolma Girls' Middle School, known for her start. A poor semi-final has put her in lane eight, the lane where she always falls short. She bursts away early while someone yells that there is no point rushing if she fades at the end. In her head she orders herself to focus and look ahead. Then she senses something is off, and a voice shouts at her to get up.

In the present, Ji-yoon shrugs off a notice that she has not been selected for a job. Her brother, Byeon Hyeok-jun, has texted her: if she cannot reach him, she should go to Spider Staffing Agency. She calls, and his number does not connect.

Ji-yoon goes to the agency

At Spider Staffing Agency, Ji-yoon jokes that Ant would be a better name. She describes her brother as a bit taller than her, a bit dopey and 30 years old, and asks if he worked there. The agency says it does not know what is going on and cannot say where he worked, to protect the worker and the client. It points her to the police, then calls her Ji-yoon, a name she never gave. As she leaves, she hears she would do better at the work than her little brother, and she insists she is the younger sibling. The police tell her there is not enough to report him missing, since most cases are runaways or pranks.

Afterward, Ji-yoon confronts a woman who has been following her. The woman, Eum Yeon-joo, says Ji-yoon notices things, unlike her older brother, and she knows Hyeok-jun by name. Her card names her as an accident investigator with the Workers' Compensation Union. When Yeon-joo points out a white-robed ghost behind them, Ji-yoon says it is an apron. Asked if she ever gets scared, Ji-yoon lists ruined nylons before an interview, wedding invitations on a tight budget, taxi fares and hospital bills. Yeon-joo tells her that, if she is right, "Mr. Hyeok-jun is at the threshold of the other world." She means it literally and says Ji-yoon can probably find him through a part-time job. Ji-yoon starts to walk away, but Yeon-joo asks if she wants her brother back and tells her to do as she says.

Two unnamed voices follow. One describes a job paying dozens or hundreds of times the minimum wage, with ghosts, monsters and bugs thrown in. The other cuts in to say they would do it a hundred times, since being broke scares them more than ghosts do.

Ji-yoon then calls the agency and asks for a job. Her card is for New World Cinema, at 50 times the daily wage, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. She texts Hyeok-jun that she reported him missing and met Yeon-joo.

A night shift at New World Cinema

At the cinema, the manager greets Ji-yoon, tells her she has pretty eyes and checks that she came from Spider. He seems pleased that she smokes. Yeon-joo's instructions play over the shift. Ji-yoon must pretend to work, since it could get dangerous if anyone catches on. An obstacle guards the passage to the other world, and she will feel she should not be alone with that person. If she finds them, she should tase them. Letters will also show in the dark, and the word beside her workplace is the door. A list shows words such as convenience store, fridge and milk delivery, and then movie theater, Screen 7.

Ji-yoon counts eight people in Screen 6. A colleague says only seven tickets were sold, wonders whether the extra one is a ghost, then calls it a joke. Later a man in a trench coat flashes her. When she chases him, he disappears. A co-worker says earlier part-timers called the flasher a ghost. Ji-yoon, who does not believe in ghosts, takes the clothes he left behind to lost and found.

The movie quiz

A man who just left Screen 6 complains that a CinemaScope film is running on a VistaVision screen without masking the letterbox. Ji-yoon admits she does not really watch movies, and he starts a quiz. She misses the first two questions: whether Bong Joon Ho is actor Bong Tae-gyu's father, and whether critic Lee Dong-jin wears red glasses. For her last chance, he acts out a title with an umbrella, rain and a smile. She guesses Romance of Their Own, and he says she does watch movies and leaves. The colleague tells her the regular is called Movie Quiz, and that three misses in a row are said to earn an awl to the mouth.

Screen 7 replays the final

Ji-yoon says Screen 7 is empty, but she is told the projectionist sees one person there. Inside, she asks a woman in the seats for her ticket. Then the screen plays the commentary from her 2014 final. The door will not open. Ji-yoon begs to be let out and tells herself to wake up as voices chant her name.

The manager finds her in the projection room holding a chair. She says something weird keeps playing and nobody is there. He tells her the projection room is not her job and the machine does that sometimes. All she has to do is get through the shift, he says, and then he offers her a smoke. She explodes, and soon he is saying it is not what she thinks. Ji-yoon calls him the obstacle, and he denies it.

Ji-yoon answers a call. On the line, the agency asks why she is picking up and where the manager is. She says she took care of him. The agency tells her not to make things worse and not to touch anything until the shift ends.

Ji-yoon goes after the obstacle

Ji-yoon seems to decide the screen is the obstacle. She grabs something to fight with and heads back to Screen 7. There she tells whatever she faces that she is the track athlete from Cheolma Girls'. After the fight, she asks, "Who said I can't finish strong?" Yeon-joo's voice tells her to find the door once the obstacle is gone. Ji-yoon finds a door handle and says her brother's full name.

Elsewhere, Hyeok-jun comes to and sees a missed call from Ji-yoon. He reads her texts and asks why she would take a part-time job. Her last message says she has taken a weird part-time job to look for him.

Up next: Dead-End Job Episode 5 Recap. See every episode in the Dead-End Job episode guide.