Spooky in Love episode 4 is the moment this drama stops playing nice. What starts as a strangely tender lesson in ghost-repellent garlic breath ends with a hit-and-run, a flatlining heartbeat, and Yeo-ri hugging a spirit she’s terrified is the man she’s falling for. If you’ve been waiting for this show to show its teeth, this is the episode.
Yeo-ri Finally Tells Gang-uk the Truth About Her Condition
The episode picks up right where things left off, with Yeo-ri trying to talk Gang-uk down while he’s still reeling from the child’s ghost haunting him. She manages to calm him enough to actually communicate with the spirit, and the little boy leads the two of them into the woods. What they find there is brutal: an overturned car, the boy’s body still inside, and his father lying next to it, badly hurt but alive.
Yeo-ri does something quietly devastating here. She lies to the injured father and tells him his son is alive, just so the man can be taken to the hospital without collapsing on the spot. But the boy’s ghost isn’t finished. He asks Yeo-ri to look in the car one more time, and that’s when she discovers his little sister still trapped inside, alive. The paramedics rush the sister to the hospital too, and a flashback fills in the gap the audience needed: the boy had thrown himself in front of his sister during the crash. Once the paramedics clear out, his spirit says goodbye to Yeo-ri and Gang-uk and moves on.
That send-off clearly rattles Gang-uk, and he finally asks Yeo-ri the question that’s been hanging over the whole show: what exactly is going on with her. She opens up, and this is where the drama gives us real backstory instead of vague hints. Yeo-ri says she’s been able to see ghosts since a near-death experience in high school, after falling off a yacht. Her friend Ji-hwan died in that same accident, and for a while she says she saw his spirit constantly before other ghosts started appearing to her too.
Then comes the part that explains everything about how she’s been treating Gang-uk. Yeo-ri says anyone she physically touches ends up able to see ghosts too, and that the rumors around her ability turned her into a social outcast back in college. Ever since, she’s avoided touching people entirely. She apologizes to Gang-uk for passing the condition to him and tells him it should wear off in about a month, then asks him to keep his distance until it does. Gang-uk’s response is to grab her hand anyway, clearly moved by what she’s been carrying alone for over a decade.
Gang-uk’s Rough Month of Jump Scares (And Garlic Breath)
That night, Yeo-ri goes home and asks the ghosts around her to leave her be, spending most of it worrying about Gang-uk instead. He’s not having an easy time of it either. He shows up to work the next morning sleep-deprived and unable to function normally with ghosts popping up everywhere he looks, and the struggle drags on for days.
Meanwhile there’s some quieter office politics brewing. Yeo-ri gives Ji-soo a gift card to buy soft toys for her son, a small gesture meant to build trust with her staff, and Gye-hee uses the moment to pump Ji-soo for information about Yeo-ri’s connection to Prosecutor Ma Gang-uk.
Back at the prosecutor’s office, Gang-uk invites Pil-dong over to watch a movie, hoping the distraction will help. It doesn’t, not really. A full week goes by and he’s still struggling, and one night a genuinely dangerous ghost pushes him to call Yeo-ri for help. She doesn’t pick up, still trying to keep her distance for his own good. But the ghost scares him badly enough that he rushes straight to her house instead. She won’t open the door at first, but he begs, and eventually she lets him in.
What follows is one of the episode’s better character beats. Yeo-ri starts to grasp just how hard this month has been for Gang-uk, but he turns the concern right back around on her, pointing out that she’s endured this exact nightmare for more than ten years and apologizing for adding to her burden. He actually decides to leave and tough it out alone rather than keep bothering her, but Yeo-ri changes her mind and starts teaching him her survival tricks instead: ignore the ghosts no matter how much they try to scare you, that’s rule one.
Over the next two weeks, the two of them stay in constant contact by phone while she coaches him through it. Salt wards off spirits, she tells him, so he should lay down a salt barrier outside his door. Ghosts also hate strong smells, which is how Gang-uk ends up eating garlic alone at his desk to keep them away, right up until the Prosecutor General sits down next to him, visibly disgusted by the smell, and things get worse when Gang-uk startles at a ghost and spits garlic directly on him.
The Night Before Gang-uk’s Last Day of Seeing Ghosts
On the eve of his final day with the ability, Gang-uk and Yeo-ri have a video call over drinks. He looks back on the whole ordeal and genuinely thanks her for getting him through it, then asks if they can keep talking through video calls even after this is over. Yeo-ri says no. For his own good, she tells him, they need to go back to being strangers, and she ends the call.
The next day, Yeo-ri can’t stop replaying his words in her head while she’s working out. When a call comes in from Ha-ri, she answers without checking who it is and blurts out the word “spirit,” assuming it’s Gang-uk on the line. Ha-ri, understandably, has no idea what she’s talking about.
Seung-jae’s Threat Turns Into a Hit-and-Run
The subplots start colliding fast from here. Ha-ri runs into Min-hwan, who keeps pressing her about Yeo-ri, and Ha-ri tells him Yeo-ri’s been spending time with Prosecutor Ma Gang-uk. Min-hwan admits he has feelings for Yeo-ri, which visibly upsets Ha-ri. She then visits Seung-jae in prison and tells him that Yeo-ri helped Gang-uk find the body in the water tank, asking Seung-jae to help knock Yeo-ri out of the running for control of the company.
Not long after, Pil-dong tells Gang-uk that Seung-jae has been released on bail. Furious, Gang-uk confronts Sang-ho, who reveals the Prosecutor General personally ordered the release. Gang-uk then goes straight at Seung-jae, promising to expose Minister Park’s slush fund, and Seung-jae responds by threatening to destroy Yeo-ri.
Gang-uk panics and tries calling her repeatedly, but she won’t pick up. He heads to her house and finds it empty. What he doesn’t know yet is that Seung-jae has already had Yeo-ri kidnapped straight out of her car.
Gang-uk goes home to find Madam Paeng waiting for him, and over dinner he finally tells her everything that’s happened since he fell into the sea off Jeju Island. Worried, she asks him to stay in for the night. But he can’t shake his fear for Yeo-ri and tries calling her again later, and when she still doesn’t answer, he tries to leave the house. Madam Paeng locks him in his room to stop him. Then, while he’s in the shower, a ghost hands him a clue about where Yeo-ri actually is.
At the same time, Seung-jae is pressuring Yeo-ri to reveal the truth about her condition, and when she refuses, he threatens to frame her in a fabricated drug case. One of his men tries to inject her with drugs, and Gang-uk arrives at the last possible second to pull her out.
He gets her into his car, and Seung-jae runs him over on purpose.
Police and paramedics show up fast, and Gang-uk is rushed to the hospital while doctors work to revive him. Yeo-ri blames herself for what’s happened, and Pil-dong and Hyung-min break down completely when they see his heartbeat flatline. Yeo-ri leaves the hospital in pieces. Outside, she suddenly sees Gang-uk’s spirit standing there, and she runs to hug him as the episode cuts to black.
Episode 4 Review: A Shocking Twist That Might Not Be What It Seems
Let’s get the obvious question out of the way first: is Gang-uk actually dead? I don’t buy it, and honestly, I’d be stunned if the show killed off its male lead in episode 4. That said, I’ll admit the way this was shot rattled me more than I expected, this is an early, brutal swing for a drama that’s spent most of its runtime on ghost-comedy beats and slow-burn tension.
The production seems to be leaning hard into the idea that he’s really gone, too. The preview for the next episode doesn’t feature Gang-uk in a single scene, which is a pretty deliberate choice if the goal is to keep viewers guessing. But again, he’s the lead, no disrespect to Ong Seong-wu, who plays Min-hwan and has clearly been positioned as more than a side character, but this show isn’t built to function without its prosecutor.
What actually caught my attention in this episode was the reveal about Jin-hwan, Min-hwan’s brother, who was apparently also on the yacht with Yeo-ri the night of the accident and likely died in it. That’s a thread I want unpacked properly. I’m hoping the show doesn’t go the obvious route and reveal Min-hwan had a hand in his own brother’s death, but the way this drama has been laying out its mysteries so far, I wouldn’t put it past the writers.
The stretch of episode dedicated to Gang-uk fumbling his way through a month of ghost sightings, while Yeo-ri coaches him through salt barriers and garlic breath over the phone, was genuinely a lot of fun to watch. It’s the kind of lighter material this show does well, and it works because it’s grounded in something real underneath the comedy: two people slowly getting closer while one of them is actively trying to prevent that from happening.
That’s what makes Yeo-ri’s arc in this episode land. Her decision to isolate herself from Gang-uk, and her guilt over “infecting” him with her ability, tracks completely with everything we now know about her past. A decade of being treated as an outcast because of something she never asked for will do that to a person. Still, once it’s confirmed that Gang-uk survives, and I have to believe he will, I’m hoping the show finally lets Yeo-ri stop running from her condition and start facing it head-on instead of retreating every time things get real.
Spooky in Love Episode 3 | Spooky in Love Episode 5
