Head Over Heels – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Review Geek

17-07-2025

Episode 8
Episode 8 of Head Over Heels begins with a flashback showing Yeom-hwa's strained relationship with Sung-ah's spirit mother and revealing their connection as spirit mother and spirit daughter. We also learn that Yeom-hwa had long been plotting to make contact with the evil spirit.
Elsewhere, Sung-ah and Gyeon-woo share some sweet moments together, hiding their bound hands from the other students, while Ji-ho silently struggles with his feelings.
On their way home, Sung-ah and Gyeon-woo talk about how they feel for each other and almost share a kiss—until Ji-ho interrupts them. Inside Gyeon-woo's house, they discover Ji-ho's action figure is broken, while Sung-ah's human amulet proxy remains intact.
Later, Ji-ho comically confesses his feelings to Sung-ah while she and Gyeon-woo are still holding hands. The three agree to sort things out only after they've dealt with the bigger issue: Bong-su's possession of Gyeon-woo.
That night, Sung-ah and Gyeon-woo go to bed unaware that during the 'Hour of the Ox' (between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.), Bong-su awakens. We find that he also harbors feelings for Sung-ah, which is why he often ends up cooperating with her.
During this time, Yeom-hwa visits him, asking him to prepare to become her patron deity. However, she grows annoyed upon realizing that Bong-su has no intention of doing so anytime soon. She also realizes that because she's spiritually bound to him, she has no choice but to wait.
Sensing evil energy from Bong-su, Sung-ah's spirit aunt and her mother's elder spirit sister arrive and create a commotion in an attempt to get him banished. When they try to strike him, Bong-su lashes out defensively but falters when the elder chants a verbal spell. At that moment, Sung-ah touches him, and Gyeon-woo returns.
Gyeon-woo tells Sung-ah to take control of the situation. She locks the door from outside and calls his phone, triggering the sound of gunfire, a sound that deeply traumatizes Bong-su. He breaks down crying, and this emotional response compels him to stop acting out. He apologizes to everyone.
It's then revealed that Gyeon-woo's spiritual senses have begun to awaken—he can now hear ghosts. Eventually, his other senses (sight, taste, smell) will open one by one. Once he's able to smell ghosts, there will be no turning back—he will merge with the spirit world entirely. At the same time, Sung-ah finds out that Yeom-hwa was once her own spirit sister.
Later, Sung-ah talks to Bong-su and makes him promise not to hurt humans. She discovers that he was searching for the memorial stone of student soldiers, which is why he insisted on using Gyeon-woo's body. Eventually, they find out the stones had been moved. Sung-ah also helps Gyeon-woo train for the competition by gently placing her hand on his back.
Bong-su, despite everything, ends up helping Sung-ah find a solution so Gyeon-woo can compete as himself. Sung-ah draws a powerful amulet on his body that will allow him to be free of Bong-su's presence for one day. It's a once-in-a-lifetime spell that can't be repeated, and surprisingly, it works.
The next day, as Gyeon-woo prepares for the archery competition, a bitter Yeom-hwa begins a counter-ritual, trying to merge her spirit with Bong-su's. This brings Bong-su back and opens Gyeon-woo's spiritual eyes, allowing him to see Sung-ah's spiritual energy for the first time as the episode ends.
The Episode Review
The plot of Head Over Heels is now officially all over the place. While the dynamics between Bong-su, Sung-ah, Gyeon-woo, and Ji-ho deliver some genuinely funny and enjoyable moments, the sheer number of subplots, sudden tonal shifts, and unresolved narrative inconsistencies continue to drag the story down.
A perfect example of this inconsistency is how Sung-ah's spirit mother curses Yeom-hwa and is supposedly meant to be punished for it—yet later, she performs a cleansing ritual on Yeom-hwa without any consequences. It just doesn't add up.
At this point, the story feels stretched, as if Bong-su was added midway just to create enough narrative material to fill the remaining episodes. His arc could have been far more effective if introduced earlier. His transformation from a supposedly dangerous spirit to a love-struck, helpful entity feels abrupt and jarring.
While Bong-su adds an unpredictable and often humorous element to the show, the overall lack of structure, weak antagonists, and muddled storytelling prevent the series from becoming as impactful as it could be.
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