8 timestamped notes explaining the Korean cultural context in this episode — customs, idioms, food, honorifics, and history, at the moment each appears on screen. These notes discuss events across the whole episode. To see them revealed scene-by-scene as you watch, use the episode page to find an airing.
이블리스 (Iblees) is the Arabic name for the Devil figure in the Quran — the jinn who refused to bow to the first human out of pride in his own fiery origin. The drama is directly lifting this name and backstory from scripture, making the villain's motivation a theological argument rather than simple villainy.
Gayoung calls this woman '엄마' (eomma, 'Mom') even though they're meeting almost as strangers after decades apart. In Korean, using a family title like this to someone's face is the normal, emotionally loaded way to address a parent — there's no neutral word like 'Mother' to hide behind. The rawness of hearing it out loud is part of what makes the scene sting.
Grandma speaks in thick 경상도 사투리 — the dialect of the southeastern provinces (Busan, Daegu area). Phrases like '우짜라꼬' (what do you want me to do?), '카라드나' (did I tell you to say?), and '뭔 에미고' (what kind of mother is that?) are signature Gyeongsang forms. Korean viewers instantly clock her as a tough, salt-of-the-earth country woman from the south.
이블리스 dramatically orders a camel as a royal mount, only to be told Gayoung already called an 우버 (Uber). The joke works because the camel is his mental image of desert transport from centuries ago, while ride-hailing apps are now routine even in the Gulf cities he associates with that world. It's the show's first big fish-out-of-water gag for the jinn.
The scene title card reads '두바이 골드 수크,' which is the famous Gold Souk market in Dubai's Deira district — one of the world's largest gold marketplaces, with hundreds of shops packed with jewelry. It's a bucket-list stop for Korean tourists and appears frequently in travel content, so the audience immediately understands why Gayoung is wide-eyed.
Gayoung haggles in English, repeating '1 디르함' (1 dirham) — the currency of the UAE, worth roughly ₩370 / $0.27. Shouting an absurdly low price and sticking to it is a classic bargaining tactic in souk-style markets. The scene plays on the stereotype of Korean tourists being aggressive, skilled bargainers abroad.
Right before jumping off the building Gayoung's only condition is that her 할머니 (halmoni, grandmother) must never find out. In Korean family culture — especially the tight two-person household the drama has sketched — keeping a dangerous secret from a grandparent is treated as a serious moral weight, not a throwaway line. It tells us immediately who Gayoung's whole world revolves around.
이블리스 urges Gayoung to use her first wish to save her own life, but she immediately recognizes the trap: once all three wishes are used up, his obligation ends and he is free to act against her. The three-wish framework here isn't just a fairy-tale trope — the drama treats it as a legally binding supernatural contract, which is consistent with jinn lore where the binding is mutual and ends only on completion.