Tomorrow Episode 1 Recap: Rowoon, Kim Hee-seon are Grim Reapers!

Tomorrow (내일) is a drama-fantasy Korean drama series directed by Kim Tae-yoon and Sung Chi-wook and stars Rowoon, Kim Hee-seon, Lee Soo-hyuk, and Yun Ji-on, alongside other cast members. The series has 16 episodes and is based on the webtoon of the same name by Ra Ma. Tomorrow episode 1 is titled Fallen Flower 1 and has a runtime of 59 minutes.

Netflix describes the series as:

Made half-human and half-spirit by accident, a young man is employed by a company of grim reapers in the underworld to carry out special missions.

– Tomorrow Episode 1 recap contain major spoilers –
– TW: Suicide –

A new month comes with a new series! Tomorrow episode 1 starts with Ryeon and Ryung-gu discussing how a group of people got together to end their lives. These two are grim reapers and Ryeon is there to save them from a horrible fate… or is she? As she drives away with the four unlikely victims, things take a mysterious and supernatural turn (because, of course). After flying together through busses and heavy traffic, they beg to be spared a horrible fate.

Ryeon, meanwhile, is thinking back to her past life and wonders that all choices that humans make have serious consequences. As the car hangs precariously over a bridge, Ryeon asks the four their choices and leaves them there with a smile on her face. On the other hand, an excited Choi Jun-woong is giving an exciting interview at a huge office. He’s confident that he’ll get the job but all of a sudden realises that the person who was at the interview with him is the owner’s family and right on track receives news that he was not selected.

That evening, standing on a bridge, Jun-woong stops a man from killing themselves and meets Ryeon and Ryung-gu in quite a shocking manner. When Ryeon tries to tell him to go home, he doesn’t listen to their advice and accidentally falls over into the Han River with the other guy. Incidentally, Ryeon and Ryung-gu are quite nonchalant about the entire thing and apart from mild annoyance, she doesn’t express much.

Anyway, though, before long, she jumps in to save him and he suddenly wakes up in a hospital room, dazed and confused. He thanks God for letting him live but before long realises that he is, in fact, not alive. Amid the confusion, he sees Ryeon in the room and she introduces himself as the grim reaper. She gives him a rundown of what happened and tells him that he will wake up from his coma in 3 years. Before long, she proposes to take him to Jumadeung, and gives him a body and clothes for the time being.

At Jumadeung, Jun-woong is freaked out by what he sees, and that’s acceptable. Being in limbo with the grim reaper must… suck. Anyway, although the road to Hell is quite scary, the Jade Emperor’s office is quite the spectacle. The Jade Emperor, meanwhile, is quite the cutie who wears cute bucket hats and gives coworkers drinks. It’s so cute! Anyway, she transforms into this rad white gown-wearing Queen that shocks Jun-woong to the core.

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Somewhere else, Joong-gil is beating people up looking dapper AF. He gets called to a meeting immediately after collecting a soul and gets into a spat with Ryeon about whether those committing suicide should be met with empathy or not. On the other hand, the Director gives Jun-woong a choice – either work at Jumadeung and wake up in 6 months or lie in a coma for 3 years. Jun-woong thinks that this is a dream but a second in his body gives him the motivation to be a Grim Reaper.

Meanwhile, the Director promises to give Ryeon a second chance and tells her that she cannot fail after this, otherwise the team will be dissolved and she won’t get what she wants. However, Ryeon implores the Director to at least give her more people. When the Director puts Jun-woong in Ryeon’s group, no one is happy but as Ryung-gu says, when the Director says jump, you jump.

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Anyway, at the site of their next victim, Jun-woong is stunned to see how Ryeon stops a motorcycle from impaling the next person who is at the risk of suicide. When he wonders what’s going on, she says that she’s the Grim Reaper who saves people’s lives. A lot of banter later, Noh Eun-bi sits down with the three of them to discuss ideas. Eun-bi herself is going through quite the trauma and Ryeon identifies that.

In between the interview, Eun-bi has a full-blown breakdown and also seems to be having auditory hallucinations (?) and Ryeon looks like she empathises with her a lot. She gets the Key of Memory, something that will help them tap into Eun-bi’s memories and she and Jun-woong get into the dark underworlds of someone going through a lot. As they jump from one memory to another, followed closely by something dark and horrible, they get stuck in a train compartment, with the darkness almost about to engulf them.

In the end scene, we see Ryeon buying Jun-woong’s “Aguccim” hoodie and beating up the guy who sold her the fake hoodie.

Final Thoughts: Tomorrow Episode 1

Well, what a delightful episode! Tomorrow is not trying to be a very serious series. It is mostly light-hearted and funny with extremely heavy topics mixed in. It is a bit of whiplash to jump from one to another but I guess if it sets the tone as such, it’s nothing you cannot handle.

The more serious topics are, well, quite difficult. Suicide is never an easy thing to talk about and watching Grim Reapers either help people off the ledge or push them off is quite difficult. Add to that watching why people come to such a conclusion with their lives – you have something horrible and intense to watch.

On the other hand, the comedy is quite silly and kooky. The series knows this and embraces it quite well. The scene where Rowoon finds himself naked and makes that thing with his feet is absolutely adorable and I am here for it. I love the costumes as well and Kim Hee-seon and Kim Hae-sook look absolutely rad. Overall, I enjoyed the ups and downs of the episode and if they can keep the tone a bit light, I think this would be quite delightful to watch.

Tomorrow is streaming on Netflix.

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