Head Over Heels Episode 11 Review: Grim Reapers and Grim Missions

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Korean series ‘Head Over Heels’ has been so entertaining so far, largely due to its charmingly cute teen shaman protagonist Seong-ah (Cho Yi-hyun), that this edition felt a bit off, because others characters get a lot more space. And also, it features some surprising twists, which take some time to make sense, including a really long time-jump!

Quick Recap of Head Over Heels Episode 10

Bong-su has fully taken over Gyeon-woo’s body, and Seong-ah can only reach out to her crush for one hour each night. The teen shaman must now find a way to exorcise the spirit and save Gyeon-woo from death. Meanwhile, Yeom-hwa (Chu Ja-hyeon) manipulates Ji-ho (Cha Kang-yoon) into giving her the ring that once belonged to Bong-su. She uses it in a dangerous ritual to summon the grim reaper and in order to send Gyeon-woo to the underworld.

Unfortunately for Yeom-hwa, her spirit-mother and senior shaman Dongcheon (Kim Mi-kyung) is determined to save her from completely turning to the dark side. So when Bong-su counter-curses Yeom-hwa, redirecting the grim reaper toward her, it’s Dongcheon who dies instead. The tragic twist unfolds because Dongcheon had secretly become a protective human talisman for Yeom-hwa, a final act of loyalty, love, and devotion to her spirit daughter, showing she would never abandon her again.

Episode 11 of ‘Head Over Heels’

The episode opens in the immediate aftermath of Dongcheon’s death. I honestly thought it might be a false alarm, and that the shamans would somehow resurrect her with their powers. But the tragedy is real. A heartbroken, grief-stricken Seong-ah vows to protect Yeom-hwa, despite all her despicable actions so far. Both the younger women are devastated by the turn of events.

Still, the central focus of this ‘Head Over Heels’ episode is the teen shaman’s unwavering resolve to save her first love, Gyeon-woo, from the clutches of malevolent forces. So she takes him on a romantic park date with a hidden agenda: to lure Bong-su out of Gyeon-woo’s body and make him follow her. Once she succeeds, Seong-ah mysteriously vanishes for months, leaving everyone wondering where she went.

There’s some romance, mystery, suspense, conflicts, and lots of emotional moments in the penultimate episode of ‘Head Over Heels’. While Yeom-hwa insists the teen has turned into an evil spirit, Gyeon-woo refuses to give up, relentlessly tracking down ghosts in hopes of finding clues to her whereabouts. Although the reversal of roles, wherein Yeom-hwa tries to play the ‘good’ shaman, while protagonist Seong-ah is labeled as the troublesome one, felt a little off.

“If you see her, you should run for your life,” Yeom-hwa warns Gyeon-woo, though he clearly doesn’t take the warning seriously. And why would he? She’s made his life miserable since he was a kid. Amid all these new developments, poor Ji-ho remains clueless. Sure, some of what’s happened is his fault, but Cha Kang-yoon portrays Ji-ho with such earnest charm that it’s easy to forgive him. And even with Seong-ah gone, he continues to support and value his friendship with his love rival, Gyeon-woo.

It takes some time to grasp where these unexpected new twists are leading the story, but the climactic moments of episode eleven deliver an exciting twist. Turns out, the Bong-su problem is far from solved, setting the stage for an entertaining finale to the teen shaman’s supernaturally romantic love story.

Watch ‘Head Over Heels’ on Prime Video.

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