11 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.
In Korean folk belief, peach blossoms and peach-wood branches are thought to ward off evil spirits and ghosts. Shamans and exorcists traditionally used them to drive away unwanted supernatural visitors — which is why a ghost who has been evading a Reaper for twenty years would be especially wary of one.
A 무당집 (mudangjip) is the home or ritual space of a 무당 (mudang), a Korean shaman who communicates with spirits and performs cleansing ceremonies. Getting struck by a peach branch at a shaman's house makes perfect sense — it would be used to repel exactly the kind of spirit a Reaper is collecting.
The crowd calls out to 칠성님 (Chilseong, the Seven Star deity) and 천지신명 (cheonjishinmyeong, the spirits of heaven and earth). These are figures from Korean folk religion that ordinary people have traditionally petitioned in moments of desperation — a practice woven into everyday life alongside Buddhism and Confucianism.
연초 (yeoncho) means the very start of the new year. The Reapers grumble that accidents and incidents spike at this time, which echoes a real Korean social belief that the new year brings heightened energy — and, apparently, a heavier workload for those managing the dead.
Kim Shin's eulogy for Chairman Yoo follows a simple, dignified Confucian style: praising a life of goodness and stating where the person now rests. Traditional Korean grave inscriptions (묘비문, myobimun) tend to be spare and moral rather than sentimental, which makes the moment feel ancient and formal even in a modern setting.
Eun-tak tells Kim Shin that living well — crying sometimes, laughing a lot, standing tall — is '받은 사랑에 대한 예의,' a way of honouring the love one has been given. This idea is deeply rooted in Korean relational ethics: receiving care or sacrifice creates an obligation (은혜, eunhye) that cannot be repaid directly and can only be honoured through one's own conduct.
The phrase '전생에 나라를 구했다' (jeongsaenge narareul guhaetda — 'you must have saved the country in a past life') is a very common Korean expression used to describe someone who has received extraordinary good luck or an undeserved windfall. Here the drama plays it completely straight: Kim Do-young literally means it.
Hwang Hui (황희, 1363–1452) was one of the most celebrated prime ministers of the Joseon dynasty, famous for his integrity, long service, and wisdom. Kim Shin casually name-dropping him as an old friend he spotted early is a running joke about the Goblin's absurd lifespan — and a nod every Korean history student would catch.
Within this drama's mythology, a Reaper's touch or kiss can unlock a person's memories of their previous life. This draws on the broader Korean and Buddhist concept of 전생 (jeongsaeng), the life lived before the current one, which is understood to leave emotional and karmic traces that can resurface under extraordinary circumstances.
Lighting a 연등 (yeondeung), a hanging paper lantern, at a Buddhist temple is a traditional way of praying for someone or memorialising the dead. It is most famously associated with the Lotus Lantern Festival around Buddha's Birthday, but individuals visit temples year-round to light a lantern and dedicate it to a person they hold in their heart.
Park Joong-heon mocks Kim Shin by contrasting 수호신 (suhosin, a protective guardian deity) with a genuine 천상의 신 (heavenly god). In Korean folk religion a suhosin is a localised spirit bound to protect a specific place or family — a step below a true divine being. The insult is that Shin has been playing a minor supporting role and got above himself.