Post by ajk on Apr 11, 2008 12:10:16 GMT -5
Sorry for the delay on this one. I had to get a second look at the episode because stuff was absolutely flying by and I just couldn't pick it all up the first time.
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As Yangnyeong turns, the arrow whizzes by him and sticks in a nearby wall. Muby missed...or did he? The soldiers with the prince look around but can't see who fired the arrow. The prince looks at the arrow; it carries a note. He removes the note and reads it. It says: "The king has calmed the public with false facade of generosity while approving the payment of tribute and deployment of military. And now he seeks to send the crown prince to Ming as a pawn. Is this not an outrage?" The prince ponders for a moment, and then suddenly grabs the head soldier's sword, brandishes it and says he's going to leave, Don't try to stop me or you'll die. From the side we hear, "Then I guess I'm going to be the one to die first." It's prince Hyoryeong; he was concerned about his brother and had come to keep him company. Put the sword down, he tells him. But Yangnyeong refuses: "I can't sit around and watch the king stir the state in the wrong direction!" Then the soldiers overpower the prince, and with surprising firmness Hyoryeong orders his brother taken inside and locked in. "Stop this unruly behavior," he says. "Or I might just take the seat of crown prince away from you!"
Baron Ok Hwan is told by Foreman Jeon and Muby that they didn't succeed in getting the crown prince out. (So the note was to incite him to escape.) We must work on the scholars, Jeon says; "they are our only hope of reigniting public fury."
King Taejong, meeting with his ministers, is shown the note. He immediately assumes that the scholars are responsible for it, and orders the military to suppress them. He ignores his ministers' arguments that there is no proof of the scholars' involvement and that the scholars are too important to agitate any further.
The military surrounds and seals off the Confucian Academy.
The king is about to go to bed, when the queen barges in, angry as heck about the action. He responds with, "I'm certain I told you that state affairs are not for women." But she wants to know his "real motive" for going after the scholars. "You can fool everyone but you can't fool me. The scholars are not your target. Your target is the crown prince." You're angry because the scholars never supported you like they're supporting him; am I right?..."You cannot persecute Confucian scholars in a state founded on Confucianism!" And she storms out.
Nighttime outside the Confucian academy: Defense ministers Yi Jongmu and Yi Sookbun are in front of their soldiers. The scholars begin to come out of the building and descend the steps, which they're not supposed to do. Just as the soldiers step forward, Minister Hwang shows up and asks the scholars, "I told you to trust us and wait. What is this childish behavior?" We were deceived, they tell him, and we won't let it happen again. But what about the future of the state, Hwang asks. "The future," the lead scholar answers, "is not our problem." The answer disgusts Hwang, who grabs the scrolls they're carrying, throws them to the ground and lights them on fire with a torch. "Go back inside and learn again," he tells them. They complain about the "two-faced" king and court, but Hwang says, "Then find the right way to break us down. Sharpen the pen like sharpening the sword." They refuse to move, so Hwang orders the men thrown back inside the building, which they are--violently. Hwang watches the violence, and as he turns we see unexpected sorrow and distress in his face. From a distance, Ok Hwan and his men are watching. "It's a pity," Ok says. "What happened to the man who said we must preserve hope?"...Flashback to the Dumundong Incident. The last 72 members (at least some of them scholars) of the Goryeo dynasty who resisted Joseon are inside a building, surrounded by soldiers. A younger Hwang Hee is in front of the building; a younger Ok Hwan watches from a distance. Two scholars emerge. Hwang begs them to leave the building. They refuse, saying that "a butcher has taken over the country." On his knees, Hwang tells them "Then you have to stay alive to take the knife away from the butcher." They rebuff him and go back inside. As a screaming Hwang is dragged away from the building by soldiers, the building is set on fire and the protesters perish...The flashback merges with the present in Hwang's eyes as he watches. He thinks to himself, "Perhaps I should have died with you then. You gave up your lives trying to protect Goryeo, just like these scholars are trying to do now. If still to this day we are suppressing the scholars' pen with the sword, aren't we unfit to lead the country?"
Prince Hyoryeong is with ex-king Jeongjong. He wants Jeongjong to call a royal family meeting. "I don't want this government descending into greater confusion." Jeongjong agrees to this and says, "I guess you're a man after all" because you've taken charge of things.
Huang Yan, the Ming envoy, is talking to his aides. He wants to send a secret message to the emperor informing him that "Joseon could become a greater enemy than Japan." His aides are surprised; You told the king you'd give him time. Huang says, "That was to get them to slacken their guard."
Evening: "Chef" Yun Hwe leaves the kitchen building--he's been sampling food--and runs into Escort Han and the girl cooks. (Han is the older woman; she's in charge of the cooks.) Yun is frustrated because the envoy keeps rejecting everything that's served to him. Walking away from the women, he goes into a deserted alleyway; puts a piece of paper into a metal tube, and throws the tube over a wall...to where another man is waiting for it.
Several Ming soldiers on horseback leave the Hall of Great Peace, where the envoy is staying. They're carrying the message to the emperor. They come upon a peasant whose hay bales have fallen from his cart and are blocking the road. The soldiers dismount and walk to the bales to move them, and suddenly are snared by nets and leghold rope traps. They're surrounded by what appears to be a group of bandits and are taken captive. The message scroll is found and handed to...Choongnyeong! This was orchestrated by him.
"Joseon must be conquered before Japan." The king reads the message, which Choongnyeong has presented to him. He asks where the messengers are being held.
Gang Sangin and his soldiers find the messengers, bound and gagged, and concealed by a roadside.
Same evening: The king is shooting arrows. He asks Choongnyeong, who's standing there with him, "Why are you keeping yourself so busy [and] so absorbed in government affairs? Have you found a taste for power as well?"
The next morning: The Ming envoy comes out and sees Taejong standing before him, smiling, with the captured messengers. They go inside and sit. Trying to bluff his way out of it, the envoy says with bombast, "Do you think you can get away with this mistreatment?" "How have we mistreated you?", Taejong replies. "No one in Joseon would ever mistreat you." Your men got into trouble, he explains, because they were wearing Joseonese clothing (so whoever captured them wouldn't have recognized them as an official Ming party). Still smiling innocently, the king then presses the issue: "Was there something you were trying to accomplish something in secret by putting your men in disguise?" The envoy stammers, "Of...course not." "Of course not," the king echoes. "You're not foolish enough to completely ignore our official diplomatic agreement. Isn't that right?" The envoy is awfully close to blowing a gasket, but he can't let on and so he just stares blankly at the smiling king.
Choongnyeong is with his wife, princess Shim. She's giving him a covered dish of food. It's a special dish prepared by her mother; the recipe is with it. He wraps the dish in a cloth and starts to walk away. She asks why he's been so busy lately; he just smiles at her uncomfortably and leaves.
Yun Hwe is going through the marketplace with several of the girl cooks, looking for ideas for some kind of food that the envoy will like. He tells the girls that they can browse around for a while; they happily run off. Then he sneaks into a side room behind a food stall, where Choongnyeong is waiting with Yi Su. The prince gives Yun the food and recipe that the princess gave him. So the food is to build on Yun's cover as a chef, and also hopefully to give the envoy something he'll like. Then Choongnyeong realizes, "I don't smell alcohol on you any more." Yun is shocked, and realizes that the prince is right! He can't remember when he had his last drink. "But when I don't drink, my hands shake and I can't do anything." The prince tells him, You look fine to me. Obviously the assignment has been good for Yun. Choongnyeong is happy about this and tells Yun he appreciates his efforts. But he also says he's disappointed that his own hard work is being looked at oddly. "Everyone, even my own wife, keeps asking me why I'm working so hard. It's not just curiosity. They're trying to get something out of me." He feels that they're doubting his purely good intentions. "Is power and authority really that spellbinding?"
The envoy finds out from his two aides that the message is gone and no one knows what happened to it. He starts slapping them. His aides tell him that the bandits who took it almost certainly can't even read, but the envoy worries that the bandits may have been Joseonese soldiers in disguise. "Whatever it takes, I will make Joseon a true subject state of great Ming." (The way he said this, clearly there's something personal driving him.)
Returning from the hall, the king meets Jeongjong. They have an awkward exchange; Jeongjong has called a family meeting but sort of apologizes to his brother for the intrusion.
The royal family meeting is about to start. The king, his brother, the princes and ministers are all present. Choongnyeong enters late; he says he didn't get the message because he was away. Jeongjong scolds him for being "out and about" while the country is in peril. Choongnyeong and his father exchange a knowing look; he says nothing, and takes his seat. Jeongjong begins. Joseon is in peril, he says; the people are angry and Ming is agitated. "As an elder of the royal house, I feel one man's sacrifice is required right now. We should send the crown prince to Ming." Hyoryeong says No, you can't send him; I'll go instead! Then prince Kyoungnyeong speaks up and tells his half brother, That won't work; you'd have to be the crown prince first. Ministers jump on his words, accusing him of trying to get Yangnyeong deposed. That isn't what I said, he tells them; I'm only saying that the envoy wants the crown prince and not just a prince. Jeongjong then further scolds Choongnyeong for not showing enough concern for his brother. He concludes by telling the king, "Make the bold decision. It's the crown prince they want." Taejong tells his brother that he and his ministers will discuss the request.
Consort Hyobin is with Kyoungnyeong, her son. She's angry with him for suggesting deposing the crown prince. But he tells her it's to kill two birds with one stone. "This is my chance to get rid of the first and second princes." (!!! WOW so he's plotting for the throne after all.) He believes that the decision will be to depose Yangnyeong rather than send him to Ming, and Hyoryeong will go instead. Then, he says, all he'll be left to contend with is the "timid and ignoble Choongnyeong, so it will be worth a shot." Hyobin's eyes blaze; "You mean this was an intentional move?" This is what she's wanted all along.
Ministers are meeting, arguing about what to do.
Jeongjong, back at his palace, tells Hyoryeong that he won't be sent to Ming. "This country needs a benevolent man like you on the throne." But be wary of Kyoungnyeong, he advises. "He is not as innocuous as he appears to be."
The queen is with her brothers, the Mins. She acknowledges prince Kyoungnyeong's cleverness, and tells them that she'll fix it so that Ming wants to take Kyoungnyeong instead of her son Yangnyeong. But the envoy wants the crown prince, they tell her, and he won't be appeased. "I don't intend to appease him," she tells them. "I intend to shut him up...forever."
Food is presented to the envoy, with Yun Hwe present. But the envoy just turns up his nose at it. Yun is frustrated, and tells him, "I'm the best chef in Joseon. Just tell me anything you want and I'll make it for you." In the back-and-forth with the interpreter, Yun is almost caught understanding the Chinese language, but he says he was just reading the envoy's facial expression. The envoy says he wants buckwheat crepes--like had in Yongwanggol on his last trip. Yun doesn't know what those are and has never heard of Yongwanggol, but he bluffs knowledge of both and says he'll get to work on it.
Ok Hwan is meeting with the Mins. They know him as a successful merchant, and remember him from earlier years, but they obviously do not know of his harmful intentions towards Joseon. They make small talk, and then they offer to give Ok exclusive supplier rights to the royal kitchen and the special events office in exchange for his help with something. It must be a tough job, Ok says, to which they reply, "You would be risking your life."
Yun Hwe again goes to the side room in the marketplace stall to meet with Choongnyeong and Yi Su. Yun tells them about the envoy's mention of Yongwanggol, and says that there is currently no such place. That must have been an old name used during the Goryeo years, they deduce, but they wonder how the envoy would know it. Yun also tells them about the buckwheat crepes, which, he's found out, are a poverty-type dish made from dryland grains. They excitedly realize that if they can find the place and the dish, they might also find the envoy's "weakness." "And when we cover up his weakness,” Choongnyeong says, “we will become his friend."
An artist is brought to Choongnyeong. The prince is told that the artist has great skill, and he asks the artist if he can depict what a man would have looked like as a child.
Nighttime: Foreman Jeon and Muby approach a vagrant sleeping outside. They offer him a drink of wine, which he accepts enthusiastically. But in the water is pufferfish poison. The poison is supposed to take effect in thirty minutes and kill within two hours. The vagrant is a test case; it works. They bring the body inside Ok's building. Ok examines the body; there's no trace of poison!
Ok presents a quantity of the poison to the mins. The poison, he explains, makes death look like natural death. It's absolutely undetectable.
The next day: The queen is with Escort Han, the cook supervisor from the Hall of Great Peace. She presents Han with a vial and tells her, "Remember, the fate of the crown prince is in your hands." So the queen is going to have the envoy killed with the undetectable poison--which will get her son off the hook.
Ok is talking to Muby. Now, he says, we have to switch the poison to a detectable kind. (!!!) So he's going to make sure that if the envoy is poisoned, it's discovered--which will create a diplomatic firestorm and start the war that he wants in order to topple the government.
Foreman Jeon accompanies escort Han back to the hall, along with a shipment of imported foods (her cover for going to the palace). On the way out, Jeon surreptitiously slips a vial and a note to eunuch Jeon Ilji (Foreman Jeon's nephew), who is working at the hall. Ilji reads the note and then eats it.
Ilji goes into escort Han's quarters to look for her vial. He spots it among her cosmetics and replaces it with his vial.
Later that afternoon, while preparing the envoy's meal, Han slips the poison into a liquid (I think it was broth) being prepared for the envoy's dinner.
Choongnyeong's eunuchs inform him that people have been found who recognize the person in the artist's drawing (which, unfortunately, we weren't shown). "Have we found a way to become friends with envoy Huang Yan?", he says excitedly.
The envoy is served his dinner. He reaches for the bowl of broth and begins to drink from it....
Outside, queen Wongyeong is pacing back and forth, waiting for the grim news she wants to hear. "Dead men don't talk," she says with a hint of a villainous smile.
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As Yangnyeong turns, the arrow whizzes by him and sticks in a nearby wall. Muby missed...or did he? The soldiers with the prince look around but can't see who fired the arrow. The prince looks at the arrow; it carries a note. He removes the note and reads it. It says: "The king has calmed the public with false facade of generosity while approving the payment of tribute and deployment of military. And now he seeks to send the crown prince to Ming as a pawn. Is this not an outrage?" The prince ponders for a moment, and then suddenly grabs the head soldier's sword, brandishes it and says he's going to leave, Don't try to stop me or you'll die. From the side we hear, "Then I guess I'm going to be the one to die first." It's prince Hyoryeong; he was concerned about his brother and had come to keep him company. Put the sword down, he tells him. But Yangnyeong refuses: "I can't sit around and watch the king stir the state in the wrong direction!" Then the soldiers overpower the prince, and with surprising firmness Hyoryeong orders his brother taken inside and locked in. "Stop this unruly behavior," he says. "Or I might just take the seat of crown prince away from you!"
Baron Ok Hwan is told by Foreman Jeon and Muby that they didn't succeed in getting the crown prince out. (So the note was to incite him to escape.) We must work on the scholars, Jeon says; "they are our only hope of reigniting public fury."
King Taejong, meeting with his ministers, is shown the note. He immediately assumes that the scholars are responsible for it, and orders the military to suppress them. He ignores his ministers' arguments that there is no proof of the scholars' involvement and that the scholars are too important to agitate any further.
The military surrounds and seals off the Confucian Academy.
The king is about to go to bed, when the queen barges in, angry as heck about the action. He responds with, "I'm certain I told you that state affairs are not for women." But she wants to know his "real motive" for going after the scholars. "You can fool everyone but you can't fool me. The scholars are not your target. Your target is the crown prince." You're angry because the scholars never supported you like they're supporting him; am I right?..."You cannot persecute Confucian scholars in a state founded on Confucianism!" And she storms out.
Nighttime outside the Confucian academy: Defense ministers Yi Jongmu and Yi Sookbun are in front of their soldiers. The scholars begin to come out of the building and descend the steps, which they're not supposed to do. Just as the soldiers step forward, Minister Hwang shows up and asks the scholars, "I told you to trust us and wait. What is this childish behavior?" We were deceived, they tell him, and we won't let it happen again. But what about the future of the state, Hwang asks. "The future," the lead scholar answers, "is not our problem." The answer disgusts Hwang, who grabs the scrolls they're carrying, throws them to the ground and lights them on fire with a torch. "Go back inside and learn again," he tells them. They complain about the "two-faced" king and court, but Hwang says, "Then find the right way to break us down. Sharpen the pen like sharpening the sword." They refuse to move, so Hwang orders the men thrown back inside the building, which they are--violently. Hwang watches the violence, and as he turns we see unexpected sorrow and distress in his face. From a distance, Ok Hwan and his men are watching. "It's a pity," Ok says. "What happened to the man who said we must preserve hope?"...Flashback to the Dumundong Incident. The last 72 members (at least some of them scholars) of the Goryeo dynasty who resisted Joseon are inside a building, surrounded by soldiers. A younger Hwang Hee is in front of the building; a younger Ok Hwan watches from a distance. Two scholars emerge. Hwang begs them to leave the building. They refuse, saying that "a butcher has taken over the country." On his knees, Hwang tells them "Then you have to stay alive to take the knife away from the butcher." They rebuff him and go back inside. As a screaming Hwang is dragged away from the building by soldiers, the building is set on fire and the protesters perish...The flashback merges with the present in Hwang's eyes as he watches. He thinks to himself, "Perhaps I should have died with you then. You gave up your lives trying to protect Goryeo, just like these scholars are trying to do now. If still to this day we are suppressing the scholars' pen with the sword, aren't we unfit to lead the country?"
Prince Hyoryeong is with ex-king Jeongjong. He wants Jeongjong to call a royal family meeting. "I don't want this government descending into greater confusion." Jeongjong agrees to this and says, "I guess you're a man after all" because you've taken charge of things.
Huang Yan, the Ming envoy, is talking to his aides. He wants to send a secret message to the emperor informing him that "Joseon could become a greater enemy than Japan." His aides are surprised; You told the king you'd give him time. Huang says, "That was to get them to slacken their guard."
Evening: "Chef" Yun Hwe leaves the kitchen building--he's been sampling food--and runs into Escort Han and the girl cooks. (Han is the older woman; she's in charge of the cooks.) Yun is frustrated because the envoy keeps rejecting everything that's served to him. Walking away from the women, he goes into a deserted alleyway; puts a piece of paper into a metal tube, and throws the tube over a wall...to where another man is waiting for it.
Several Ming soldiers on horseback leave the Hall of Great Peace, where the envoy is staying. They're carrying the message to the emperor. They come upon a peasant whose hay bales have fallen from his cart and are blocking the road. The soldiers dismount and walk to the bales to move them, and suddenly are snared by nets and leghold rope traps. They're surrounded by what appears to be a group of bandits and are taken captive. The message scroll is found and handed to...Choongnyeong! This was orchestrated by him.
"Joseon must be conquered before Japan." The king reads the message, which Choongnyeong has presented to him. He asks where the messengers are being held.
Gang Sangin and his soldiers find the messengers, bound and gagged, and concealed by a roadside.
Same evening: The king is shooting arrows. He asks Choongnyeong, who's standing there with him, "Why are you keeping yourself so busy [and] so absorbed in government affairs? Have you found a taste for power as well?"
The next morning: The Ming envoy comes out and sees Taejong standing before him, smiling, with the captured messengers. They go inside and sit. Trying to bluff his way out of it, the envoy says with bombast, "Do you think you can get away with this mistreatment?" "How have we mistreated you?", Taejong replies. "No one in Joseon would ever mistreat you." Your men got into trouble, he explains, because they were wearing Joseonese clothing (so whoever captured them wouldn't have recognized them as an official Ming party). Still smiling innocently, the king then presses the issue: "Was there something you were trying to accomplish something in secret by putting your men in disguise?" The envoy stammers, "Of...course not." "Of course not," the king echoes. "You're not foolish enough to completely ignore our official diplomatic agreement. Isn't that right?" The envoy is awfully close to blowing a gasket, but he can't let on and so he just stares blankly at the smiling king.
Choongnyeong is with his wife, princess Shim. She's giving him a covered dish of food. It's a special dish prepared by her mother; the recipe is with it. He wraps the dish in a cloth and starts to walk away. She asks why he's been so busy lately; he just smiles at her uncomfortably and leaves.
Yun Hwe is going through the marketplace with several of the girl cooks, looking for ideas for some kind of food that the envoy will like. He tells the girls that they can browse around for a while; they happily run off. Then he sneaks into a side room behind a food stall, where Choongnyeong is waiting with Yi Su. The prince gives Yun the food and recipe that the princess gave him. So the food is to build on Yun's cover as a chef, and also hopefully to give the envoy something he'll like. Then Choongnyeong realizes, "I don't smell alcohol on you any more." Yun is shocked, and realizes that the prince is right! He can't remember when he had his last drink. "But when I don't drink, my hands shake and I can't do anything." The prince tells him, You look fine to me. Obviously the assignment has been good for Yun. Choongnyeong is happy about this and tells Yun he appreciates his efforts. But he also says he's disappointed that his own hard work is being looked at oddly. "Everyone, even my own wife, keeps asking me why I'm working so hard. It's not just curiosity. They're trying to get something out of me." He feels that they're doubting his purely good intentions. "Is power and authority really that spellbinding?"
The envoy finds out from his two aides that the message is gone and no one knows what happened to it. He starts slapping them. His aides tell him that the bandits who took it almost certainly can't even read, but the envoy worries that the bandits may have been Joseonese soldiers in disguise. "Whatever it takes, I will make Joseon a true subject state of great Ming." (The way he said this, clearly there's something personal driving him.)
Returning from the hall, the king meets Jeongjong. They have an awkward exchange; Jeongjong has called a family meeting but sort of apologizes to his brother for the intrusion.
The royal family meeting is about to start. The king, his brother, the princes and ministers are all present. Choongnyeong enters late; he says he didn't get the message because he was away. Jeongjong scolds him for being "out and about" while the country is in peril. Choongnyeong and his father exchange a knowing look; he says nothing, and takes his seat. Jeongjong begins. Joseon is in peril, he says; the people are angry and Ming is agitated. "As an elder of the royal house, I feel one man's sacrifice is required right now. We should send the crown prince to Ming." Hyoryeong says No, you can't send him; I'll go instead! Then prince Kyoungnyeong speaks up and tells his half brother, That won't work; you'd have to be the crown prince first. Ministers jump on his words, accusing him of trying to get Yangnyeong deposed. That isn't what I said, he tells them; I'm only saying that the envoy wants the crown prince and not just a prince. Jeongjong then further scolds Choongnyeong for not showing enough concern for his brother. He concludes by telling the king, "Make the bold decision. It's the crown prince they want." Taejong tells his brother that he and his ministers will discuss the request.
Consort Hyobin is with Kyoungnyeong, her son. She's angry with him for suggesting deposing the crown prince. But he tells her it's to kill two birds with one stone. "This is my chance to get rid of the first and second princes." (!!! WOW so he's plotting for the throne after all.) He believes that the decision will be to depose Yangnyeong rather than send him to Ming, and Hyoryeong will go instead. Then, he says, all he'll be left to contend with is the "timid and ignoble Choongnyeong, so it will be worth a shot." Hyobin's eyes blaze; "You mean this was an intentional move?" This is what she's wanted all along.
Ministers are meeting, arguing about what to do.
Jeongjong, back at his palace, tells Hyoryeong that he won't be sent to Ming. "This country needs a benevolent man like you on the throne." But be wary of Kyoungnyeong, he advises. "He is not as innocuous as he appears to be."
The queen is with her brothers, the Mins. She acknowledges prince Kyoungnyeong's cleverness, and tells them that she'll fix it so that Ming wants to take Kyoungnyeong instead of her son Yangnyeong. But the envoy wants the crown prince, they tell her, and he won't be appeased. "I don't intend to appease him," she tells them. "I intend to shut him up...forever."
Food is presented to the envoy, with Yun Hwe present. But the envoy just turns up his nose at it. Yun is frustrated, and tells him, "I'm the best chef in Joseon. Just tell me anything you want and I'll make it for you." In the back-and-forth with the interpreter, Yun is almost caught understanding the Chinese language, but he says he was just reading the envoy's facial expression. The envoy says he wants buckwheat crepes--like had in Yongwanggol on his last trip. Yun doesn't know what those are and has never heard of Yongwanggol, but he bluffs knowledge of both and says he'll get to work on it.
Ok Hwan is meeting with the Mins. They know him as a successful merchant, and remember him from earlier years, but they obviously do not know of his harmful intentions towards Joseon. They make small talk, and then they offer to give Ok exclusive supplier rights to the royal kitchen and the special events office in exchange for his help with something. It must be a tough job, Ok says, to which they reply, "You would be risking your life."
Yun Hwe again goes to the side room in the marketplace stall to meet with Choongnyeong and Yi Su. Yun tells them about the envoy's mention of Yongwanggol, and says that there is currently no such place. That must have been an old name used during the Goryeo years, they deduce, but they wonder how the envoy would know it. Yun also tells them about the buckwheat crepes, which, he's found out, are a poverty-type dish made from dryland grains. They excitedly realize that if they can find the place and the dish, they might also find the envoy's "weakness." "And when we cover up his weakness,” Choongnyeong says, “we will become his friend."
An artist is brought to Choongnyeong. The prince is told that the artist has great skill, and he asks the artist if he can depict what a man would have looked like as a child.
Nighttime: Foreman Jeon and Muby approach a vagrant sleeping outside. They offer him a drink of wine, which he accepts enthusiastically. But in the water is pufferfish poison. The poison is supposed to take effect in thirty minutes and kill within two hours. The vagrant is a test case; it works. They bring the body inside Ok's building. Ok examines the body; there's no trace of poison!
Ok presents a quantity of the poison to the mins. The poison, he explains, makes death look like natural death. It's absolutely undetectable.
The next day: The queen is with Escort Han, the cook supervisor from the Hall of Great Peace. She presents Han with a vial and tells her, "Remember, the fate of the crown prince is in your hands." So the queen is going to have the envoy killed with the undetectable poison--which will get her son off the hook.
Ok is talking to Muby. Now, he says, we have to switch the poison to a detectable kind. (!!!) So he's going to make sure that if the envoy is poisoned, it's discovered--which will create a diplomatic firestorm and start the war that he wants in order to topple the government.
Foreman Jeon accompanies escort Han back to the hall, along with a shipment of imported foods (her cover for going to the palace). On the way out, Jeon surreptitiously slips a vial and a note to eunuch Jeon Ilji (Foreman Jeon's nephew), who is working at the hall. Ilji reads the note and then eats it.
Ilji goes into escort Han's quarters to look for her vial. He spots it among her cosmetics and replaces it with his vial.
Later that afternoon, while preparing the envoy's meal, Han slips the poison into a liquid (I think it was broth) being prepared for the envoy's dinner.
Choongnyeong's eunuchs inform him that people have been found who recognize the person in the artist's drawing (which, unfortunately, we weren't shown). "Have we found a way to become friends with envoy Huang Yan?", he says excitedly.
The envoy is served his dinner. He reaches for the bowl of broth and begins to drink from it....
Outside, queen Wongyeong is pacing back and forth, waiting for the grim news she wants to hear. "Dead men don't talk," she says with a hint of a villainous smile.