Post by ajk on Apr 3, 2020 16:32:15 GMT -5
We open with a flashback to a silly little event that the crown prince had brought up back in Episode 1. Mu-yeong is stealing dessert treats from the prince’s table as the prince sleeps. But the prince wakes up and catches him. It’s for my pregnant wife who has morning sickness, Mu-yeong explains. Obviously these little treats are nothing special for the prince, and he’s a decent sort, so he basically just tells Mu-yeong to take what he needs when he needs it. Just ensure me your loyalty and stay by my side, he asks...
...this is in the prince’s thoughts as he sits with Mu-yeong’s arrow-riddled dead body.
It’s evening now and the Cho Hak-ju group has arrived in the capital. Seo-bi is in the palanquin with Cho, whose condition is deteriorating by the hour. But what to do? Traditional medicines don’t work, so she has to come up with something. Remembering that the zombies who pursued her up that mountainside despised water, she tries the simple act of putting Cho into a warm bath. Then completely submerging him, face and all. The body starts to convulse and all looks lost...but then all of a sudden, some little worms emerge from the skin of Cho’s face and float to the surface. The convulsions stop. You don’t think...maybe?
A bell rings in the capital. A prince has been born! Officials rush to the queen’s palace to shout their congratulations.
Meanwhile at Naeseonjae, still evening, another group of murdered women is being dragged away for disposal. These women are all pregnant, apparently murdered to keep them from talking. But suddenly, the prince’s group shows up and discovers it all. And finds one woman still alive. It’s Mu-yeong’s wife.
The next morning: the defense minister fills his colleagues in on his investigation and all but accuses the queen of searching for someone else’s male baby to claim as her own. Suddenly the door opens and Cho Hak-ju walks into the room! Not looking great but way, way better than last night. Seo-bi is a genius! But the bath didn’t wash the dirtbag-ness out of him, unfortunately, and he starts ranting about how everybody who’s aligned themselves with the crown prince needs to be executed, along with all of their families. And he has a squad of swordsmen with him to make sure none of the officials will object.
And he meant it: All over the capital we see families being torn from their houses and led away in restraints. It’s a horrible sight, and it greatly upsets Seo-bi and Beom-pal as they watch. But now Seobi spots something that lures her down a side street and around a corner. It’s the prince, in disguise.
He takes her to Naeseonjae, to evaluate Mu-yeong’s wife—who’s in severe shock but her condition isn’t critical, thank goodness. Seo-bi has a surprise for the prince. She shows him the worms (dead now) that came out of Cho, and she’s figured out that this worm lays eggs on the Resurrection Plant and that absorption of the eggs is what incubates the zombie disease. At least for someone who’s infected...but all of those plague zombies, she has no answer for that yet. Now he asks a big, big favor of her...
Beom-pal has brought Seo-bi to his uncle. She wants to be the queen’s physician! Well geez, she saved Hak-ju’s life and even Hak-ju isn’t such a jackass that he’d ignore her talent...
...so he takes him to her. She’s holding “her” son. But from the look on Cho’s face, he’s not buying it. She serves him tea and makes small talk about him executing all of those people. but he’s not in a chatty mood. He wants Seo-bi to examine her. Another tense standoff, but Cho literally shoves Seo-bi at his daughter and orders her to take the queen’s pulse. No rough pulse, normal breathing—which means she’s hasn’t endured a delivery recently. The baby isn’t hers, Seo-bi tells him with an understandable tremor in her voice.
...a quick flashback to the moment when two royal physicians tell the queen that she isn’t able to conceive. The junior dirtbag Cho Beom-il is there; remember he’s the queen’s sister. She proposes a plot to fake a pregnancy, which Beom-il says is to ridiculous to think about. But the queen says it’s the only way for them to get the power they want. And we won’t tell our father either, she says (which we know she did not)...
...but now he knows and he’s chewing her out big-time. Prince Noseong was exiled, he says, but his children are alive on Ganghwa Island, he says...and any of them are more worthy of the throne than that baby. The baby will die tonight, he says, and so will everyone else involved in your scheme. And you’ll live alone for the rest of your life as punishment.
...but back to the flashback. What if my father finds out?, Beom-il asks his sister...
...suddenly Cho starts to retch. He gasps, coughs blood, falls over and dies. The tea was poisoned! You always hated me, she says as he dies, and thought so little of me because I was a girl, but now “I’m the most powerful Haewon Cho” and the kingdom is mine. And meanwhile, Seo-bi has been in the room for all of this. What will happen to her?
Now it’s the Cho clan wearing white and mourning. The news is released that he died from the plague.
Ganghwa Island: The prince has come here and approaches a raggedy-looking fisherman on the shore. He causes the man to lose a fish and the man starts to stomp away in anger, but a single word stops him in his tracks: “Uncle.” That word has many meanings in Korean, but apparently this is a son of the king’s brother Noseong. Now the man recognizes the prince, and they talk.
Yeong-sin has accompanied the prince here. Why have you remained with me? He asks. “The country is a mess,” he says. “everyone is starving. But I believe in you. I think you can bring about the changes we need.”
Beom-pal has made the funeral arrangements and is visiting the queen. She appreciates his help and offers to promote him to head of the royal commandery. (The guy who had that job is due to be executed for entering the queen’s delivery chamber.) You’ll help protect me and the baby, she tells him. Then he asks about Seo-bi. I sent her away, is all the information he gets.
But she didn’t. She’s tossed a blindfolded, bound Seo-bi into a prison full of zombies. Tells her, I hope you have more luck solving the plague than Lee Seung-hui did.
...this is in the prince’s thoughts as he sits with Mu-yeong’s arrow-riddled dead body.
It’s evening now and the Cho Hak-ju group has arrived in the capital. Seo-bi is in the palanquin with Cho, whose condition is deteriorating by the hour. But what to do? Traditional medicines don’t work, so she has to come up with something. Remembering that the zombies who pursued her up that mountainside despised water, she tries the simple act of putting Cho into a warm bath. Then completely submerging him, face and all. The body starts to convulse and all looks lost...but then all of a sudden, some little worms emerge from the skin of Cho’s face and float to the surface. The convulsions stop. You don’t think...maybe?
A bell rings in the capital. A prince has been born! Officials rush to the queen’s palace to shout their congratulations.
Meanwhile at Naeseonjae, still evening, another group of murdered women is being dragged away for disposal. These women are all pregnant, apparently murdered to keep them from talking. But suddenly, the prince’s group shows up and discovers it all. And finds one woman still alive. It’s Mu-yeong’s wife.
The next morning: the defense minister fills his colleagues in on his investigation and all but accuses the queen of searching for someone else’s male baby to claim as her own. Suddenly the door opens and Cho Hak-ju walks into the room! Not looking great but way, way better than last night. Seo-bi is a genius! But the bath didn’t wash the dirtbag-ness out of him, unfortunately, and he starts ranting about how everybody who’s aligned themselves with the crown prince needs to be executed, along with all of their families. And he has a squad of swordsmen with him to make sure none of the officials will object.
And he meant it: All over the capital we see families being torn from their houses and led away in restraints. It’s a horrible sight, and it greatly upsets Seo-bi and Beom-pal as they watch. But now Seobi spots something that lures her down a side street and around a corner. It’s the prince, in disguise.
He takes her to Naeseonjae, to evaluate Mu-yeong’s wife—who’s in severe shock but her condition isn’t critical, thank goodness. Seo-bi has a surprise for the prince. She shows him the worms (dead now) that came out of Cho, and she’s figured out that this worm lays eggs on the Resurrection Plant and that absorption of the eggs is what incubates the zombie disease. At least for someone who’s infected...but all of those plague zombies, she has no answer for that yet. Now he asks a big, big favor of her...
Beom-pal has brought Seo-bi to his uncle. She wants to be the queen’s physician! Well geez, she saved Hak-ju’s life and even Hak-ju isn’t such a jackass that he’d ignore her talent...
...so he takes him to her. She’s holding “her” son. But from the look on Cho’s face, he’s not buying it. She serves him tea and makes small talk about him executing all of those people. but he’s not in a chatty mood. He wants Seo-bi to examine her. Another tense standoff, but Cho literally shoves Seo-bi at his daughter and orders her to take the queen’s pulse. No rough pulse, normal breathing—which means she’s hasn’t endured a delivery recently. The baby isn’t hers, Seo-bi tells him with an understandable tremor in her voice.
...a quick flashback to the moment when two royal physicians tell the queen that she isn’t able to conceive. The junior dirtbag Cho Beom-il is there; remember he’s the queen’s sister. She proposes a plot to fake a pregnancy, which Beom-il says is to ridiculous to think about. But the queen says it’s the only way for them to get the power they want. And we won’t tell our father either, she says (which we know she did not)...
...but now he knows and he’s chewing her out big-time. Prince Noseong was exiled, he says, but his children are alive on Ganghwa Island, he says...and any of them are more worthy of the throne than that baby. The baby will die tonight, he says, and so will everyone else involved in your scheme. And you’ll live alone for the rest of your life as punishment.
...but back to the flashback. What if my father finds out?, Beom-il asks his sister...
...suddenly Cho starts to retch. He gasps, coughs blood, falls over and dies. The tea was poisoned! You always hated me, she says as he dies, and thought so little of me because I was a girl, but now “I’m the most powerful Haewon Cho” and the kingdom is mine. And meanwhile, Seo-bi has been in the room for all of this. What will happen to her?
Now it’s the Cho clan wearing white and mourning. The news is released that he died from the plague.
Ganghwa Island: The prince has come here and approaches a raggedy-looking fisherman on the shore. He causes the man to lose a fish and the man starts to stomp away in anger, but a single word stops him in his tracks: “Uncle.” That word has many meanings in Korean, but apparently this is a son of the king’s brother Noseong. Now the man recognizes the prince, and they talk.
Yeong-sin has accompanied the prince here. Why have you remained with me? He asks. “The country is a mess,” he says. “everyone is starving. But I believe in you. I think you can bring about the changes we need.”
Beom-pal has made the funeral arrangements and is visiting the queen. She appreciates his help and offers to promote him to head of the royal commandery. (The guy who had that job is due to be executed for entering the queen’s delivery chamber.) You’ll help protect me and the baby, she tells him. Then he asks about Seo-bi. I sent her away, is all the information he gets.
But she didn’t. She’s tossed a blindfolded, bound Seo-bi into a prison full of zombies. Tells her, I hope you have more luck solving the plague than Lee Seung-hui did.
