Post by ajk on Nov 26, 2008 17:46:12 GMT -5
Nighttime: Yun Hwe is talking to Shin Sukju. "You didn't even listen when I begged you for help. What happened?" Sukju won't tell him unless he promises to quit drinking entirely, even the three tiny cups: "I don't want to lose you, grandfather. You can't bring me here into the Hall of Worthies and then leave me." Yun protests, telling him he uses the alcohol for his pain now, but Sukju says you need medicine for that, not alcohol, and should see the royal physician. "You don't think I've been the to the physician?" Sukju doesn't like the sound of this: "There's no hope?" Yun sidesteps: "What's this in front of me? You are my hope." Not a great answer, but Sukju does go ahead and tells him: "It was the girigocha (the distance-measuring wagon). I came here on a girigocha"...Flashback: Hwang Hee has come to Sukju's home on a girigocha; he asks Sukju to take a ride with him: "Your departed father sent me." They travel through a village, Hwang happily reciting random distance measurements as they go. It's really weird. But Sukju knows plenty of distance figures on his own and starts citing some of them, making it even weirder. "You must have had a lot of interest in your father's work," Hwang says, knowing that the girigocha was one of Shin Jang's big projects (which is undoubtedly why he showed up riding one). "His work was all he could talk about." "Then how could you say that his illness was all he got out of his work?" And there's the whole point that Hwang was leading up to...Flashback ending, they enter the darkened, empty Hall of Worthies and Sukju imagines his father working hard with the other scholars. Then crown prince Hyang enters and greets the new scholar: "It's good to know that you'll be here."
At last, back to Sejong and the crown princess: "I wish this were not true." So does she: "I'm in no position to speak, but I hope my deposal does not hurt the crown prince in any way." "Go back to your chambers," he orders her, saying nothing more. Outside the room, Jachi is waiting; he enters after she leaves and begs the king, "Give me death, your majesty." "You must have known about it." "I wanted to take care of it without disturbing you, but..." Sejong cuts him off: "Would you call the palace maids?"
Gang Hui and several other guards barge into Sosang's and Danji's room. But the two are nowhere to be found.
Outside: the two of them are trying to scale the palace walls and flee. It's hard for them, but they manage to make it out and get away.
The queen has received the crown princess: "Why did you go to the king? You should've come to me first." She gets up and starts to leave, presumably to go work on damage control, but then she stops and turns around: "Child, are you...are you all right?" She's not all right; she's devastated and the queen can see it. Feeling sorry for the girl, Soheon sits down next to her and takes her hand. "I don't know what to say to comfort you." "Don't worry, mother. I've gone too far."
At the observatory: Sukju is being shown the stars by Hyang and Youngsil. A whole group of officials is there, too, just standing there watching them (weird). Sukju tells Hyang he wanted to see the stars because "I want to know where I stand. I heard you are to become the regent." He draws an analogy between the North Star with its four "protector stars" at the center of the sky, and Hyang's ascension: "I may be no more than an errand boy as a junior scholar, but I will work hard to become a faithful retainer who will be right beside you beside you like the four protector stars." The officials smile. (Didn't like this scene. With all those officials standing there in the darkness, it felt staged and phony.)
The three suspicious scholars, Choi Manli, Jeong Changson and Gim Mun, are trying to figure out what's going on. Separately, so are Jeong Inji and Jang Youngsil. It's odd about Sukju, Jeong says, because he hasn't even passed his civil servant exams yet. Sejong wants him here just because of his language expertise...Then the pieces fall into place and Jeong figures it out...At the same time, Choi Manli does too: "Does this mean that wasn't a joke?" "No way--this is insane! The king...the king is...the king is trying to crate a new writing system"...Flashback to the debate scene in the previous episode; Sejong's offhand comment about a new writing system, which seemed risky at the time (apparently it was too risky after all)...Flashback ending, back to Jeong: "He wasn't joking." Youngsil tells him not to jump to conclusions, but Jeong says, "No, the chances are my guess is right. He knew we couldn't deal with something as big as this." He's calmly trying to absorb it all...But Choi isn't calm at all: "We must stop the creation of a new writing system! The regency is proof that it is true! Why else would the king suddenly give the government to his son?"
Gang Hui informs Jachi and Ogeun that searches of the whole palace have failed to turn up the two maids. "The crown prince should be informed," Jachi says. "Anything can happen now. He has to brace himself."
Ogeun goes to the crown prince....
We see Sosang and Danji. They've come to Choi Manli's house!
The queen has gone to see her husband. They take turns taking blame. The queen goes first: "It's my fault. Your shoulders are heavy as it is with state affairs, and I have added to our burden. I don't know how I could ever make up for this." King's turn: "You are a cruel woman. And you're a foolish woman as well. How could you hold yourself responsible for someone else's failure and so thoroughly blame yourself? Scold me instead. I claim to be the father of all people, but I don't even know what is gong on with my own son, let alone take notice of his pain. You should blame me and scold me instead." Another turn: "I know too much of your own pain and struggle to do that to you." "I hope I am not too late. I want to share my son's pain. No, I want so suffer his pain for him if it's possible." Whew.
Choi is looking at the drawings brought by Sosang and Danji. "Will you help us now?", they ask. "Sure, why not? Guard!" Guards come in (why does Choi Manli have guards?) and take the girls into custody. They protest, but Choi tells them, "Quiet down and behave yourselves if you don't want to die this instant." And he goes outside to think. Jeong and Gim follow him: "Are you going to have the girls killed?" Maybe: "They threatened the crown prince and patronized the crown princess." But Gim tells him, "If you're right about the king's plan, you should stop the regency." And Jeong adds, saying what we already assume Choi must be thinking, "This is your weapon."
Hyang enters his chambers and is surprised to find his father waiting for him. "Don't just stand there. Come and sit down." They share a bit of food and drink. "I guess we've never had a casual drink like this before. What am I doing that's so important that I can't make time for a drink with my own son?" But Hyang is uncomfortable: "I know you want to talk." Then he talks, trying to tell him the status of his work, that Jinyang is "intelligent and prudent, so he should do a good job for you if you command him," and that he'll leave the city with his wife tomorrow. "Then the world will see my wife as a good woman who gave up the glory of the crown to take care of her feeble husband. This is the only way to preserve the honor of the royal house..." But Sejong cuts him off: "You are more important to me than the honor of the royal house, son!" Then some more blame-taking, Sejong first: "I'm sorry for making you suffer alone. I'm sorry for being such a distant father that you couldn't approach me to share your pain with." "I'm sorry father. I didn't want to disappoint you, but I just couldn't get myself to embrace that woman." Sejong tells him, You did nothing wrong and this isn't your fault (hmmm...).
The next day: Hyang and Choi Manli encounter each other in a hallway. Hyang is visiting the various offices in preparation for the regency. "Is that so?" Choi smiles, at him, a confident, devious smile. Hyang tells him he hopes he has the support of the Hall of Worthies.
At the archery grounds: The king is shooting, the queen watching. Sejong says he's proud of how Hyang is holding up. The queen still thinks they should have deposed the crown princess (so they obviously didn't). But Hyang apparently is willing to bear the situation. And the poor princess, "The palace is like hell to her now." Sejong wants to find the two palace maids and "take care of things," (whatever that means), but Hyang doesn't want a scandal. Besides, Soheon tells him, he can endure this because "the first thing Hyang learned from you is bearing pain and enduring hardship."
Choi tells Jeong and Gim, "Forget about the crown princess for now," which surprises them. They accuse him of going soft on his pupil Hyang and letting personal feelings interfere with politics.
Hamgil Province in the north: Gim Jongsuh is with the Mongolian messenger, who's still there and is getting impatient because he doesn't have an answer to his message yet. Gim is still waiting for word from the king.
Sejong, Hwang Hee, Meng Sasung and Jo Malseng discuss the Mongolian situation. We learn that Mongolia has requested the new technology. Hwang advises taking care of this before the regency takes hold.
In the secret language research room: Yun Hwe collapses again from the pain in his side. Sukju tries to help him, and even offers him a drink of wine from a jug to help with the pain, that's how severe it appears to be. Yun won't take it. But then he hears someone coming down the stairs. Still in visible pain, he quickly splashes wine all over both of them, tells Sukju to say nothing, and lies down on the floor. It's Sejong he heard coming. "What is going on here?" Still incapacitated, Yun has made it look like he's drunk again rather than telling the king about his illness. Sukju tries to tell the truth, but Yun cuts him off: "Kid, telling him that you drank with me won't change anything!" Sejong scolds both of them--severely--and storms out. Sukju wants his grandfather to tell Sejong the truth and resign from office to attend to his health, but of course he won't do it.
Yun is before Sejong, who takes his mini-cup away from him and tosses it in a drawer. You haven't been looking well lately, he tells Yun; he's concerned besides being angry. "I'm not exactly a young man any more, your majesty," he says, but then smiling and trying to deflect the issue, "It doesn't feel half bad to know that you still love me." Trying to be cute, he smiles wider. "In return for your love, I will go and take care of the Mongolia situation."
We see Toghon, leader of the Oirat Mongolian tribes. Yun Hwe has led a party to Mongolia and has just presented Toghon with a large rolled-up piece of paper. "This is the design your government requested," Yun says. Toghon is obviously very pleased to have it. We're left to wonder why Joseon is giving Mongolia weapons technology when they've tried so hard to keep it secret from Ming. Doesn't make sense.
Riding back from Mongolia, the Joseonese come under fire from archers and then are surrounded by soldiers...led by Huang Zan! Huang announces, "We have reason to believe Joseon is exchanging very dangerous information with great Ming's enemy Mongolia!" Yikes.
Apparently somewhere in Ming: Yun is being questioned by Wang Zhen. (Double yikes.) Wang demands to know what the Joseonese were doing in Mongolia.
We see Toghon unfurl the paper and study the drawing--of a waterwheel!
Turns out, Joseon gave the Mongols a plan for one of their fancy irrigation waterwheels in exchange for a Mongolian rhyming dictionary called Menggu Ziyun. Sure fooled us, and made Ming look downright stupid. "Now," Yun says, "shall we talk about Ming's baseless suspicion and contemptuous action towards a sister country?" We get the impression from Huang Zan that the faulty information came from Dongchang, because he tells Yun (with Wang sitting right there) that he'll deal himself with those who "extracted false information and incited trouble in the Ming-Joseon relationship."
The three troublemaking scholars discuss the latest events. Along with the Mongolian text being acquired, we learn that Sukju has been to Japan to acquire Japanese script, and he's even being sent to India next. What do all three places have in common? They all have their own writing. All of it is "crude, inferior script," they agree. And they agree that something has to be done.
Evening: Choi has come to see Hyang, bringing the scandalous drawings with him. Hyang wants to know how Choi got the drawings, but Choi sidesteps the question and asks Hyang if he wants this concealed. A still-befuddled Hyang asks in return, "What do you want, master?" "For you to become a good king. And for that, I'm wiling to cover this up." He continues, "His majesty the king is on a very dangerous path right now. He could very well lead the country to doom on this path." And he spills the beans about the writing system. Hyang hadn't been told yet; his eyes widen. A different writing system, Choi says, is something "that only barbarians resort to creating for themselves. The king knows just how risky this is. That's why he is doing this on his own without even consulting the scholars. And to do this, what he needs most is time...It just so happens that tomorrow is your first day [as regent]. But you must decline. That's the only way to stop the king from pursuing this dangerous endeavor." And if I don't decline?, Hyang asks. Without hesitation Choi tells his pupil, "We will become political enemies. I'm a politician who knows how to exploit my opposition's weakness if it is for the good of the country."
Hyang has gone to his father and told him everything, and asked him about the writing system project. "It's all true," Sejong acknowledges. "What can I do to make you call it off?" Obviously nothing, because Sejong tells him that this is something that the people need. Hyang counters, You'll need the support of good men (and the officials would strongly oppose the project). And we know that he'll need Hyang to accept the regency. But if he does, Choi will expose the scandal. You have a tough decision to make, Sejong observes, since you obviously don't want to lose Choi. But Sejong surprises us (surprised me, at least) by stepping completely away from it, making no attempt to sway his son. "I've turned over the state affairs to you as of today," he tells him (must be after midnight). "So it's your call."
Alone at night, Hyang thinks.
The next morning: Hyang is standing alone in a courtyard. Choi approaches him. His back to Choi, Hyang tells him, "The Hall of Worthies' first assignment is editing the Classification of Pathologies." Sounds like a very routine assignment...but Hyang is actually giving the assignment. Choi asks, "What does this mean?" The prince turns around to face him: "Why else would I be giving you an assignment? I'm accepting the regency." Choi glares. "Then the world will take the future throne from you. I've warned you. I'm a politician before I am your mentor." Hyang glares fearlessly back at Choi, showing a determination and courage we've never seen in him. "Walk the path you have chosen for yourself, master. I will do the same."
At last, back to Sejong and the crown princess: "I wish this were not true." So does she: "I'm in no position to speak, but I hope my deposal does not hurt the crown prince in any way." "Go back to your chambers," he orders her, saying nothing more. Outside the room, Jachi is waiting; he enters after she leaves and begs the king, "Give me death, your majesty." "You must have known about it." "I wanted to take care of it without disturbing you, but..." Sejong cuts him off: "Would you call the palace maids?"
Gang Hui and several other guards barge into Sosang's and Danji's room. But the two are nowhere to be found.
Outside: the two of them are trying to scale the palace walls and flee. It's hard for them, but they manage to make it out and get away.
The queen has received the crown princess: "Why did you go to the king? You should've come to me first." She gets up and starts to leave, presumably to go work on damage control, but then she stops and turns around: "Child, are you...are you all right?" She's not all right; she's devastated and the queen can see it. Feeling sorry for the girl, Soheon sits down next to her and takes her hand. "I don't know what to say to comfort you." "Don't worry, mother. I've gone too far."
At the observatory: Sukju is being shown the stars by Hyang and Youngsil. A whole group of officials is there, too, just standing there watching them (weird). Sukju tells Hyang he wanted to see the stars because "I want to know where I stand. I heard you are to become the regent." He draws an analogy between the North Star with its four "protector stars" at the center of the sky, and Hyang's ascension: "I may be no more than an errand boy as a junior scholar, but I will work hard to become a faithful retainer who will be right beside you beside you like the four protector stars." The officials smile. (Didn't like this scene. With all those officials standing there in the darkness, it felt staged and phony.)
The three suspicious scholars, Choi Manli, Jeong Changson and Gim Mun, are trying to figure out what's going on. Separately, so are Jeong Inji and Jang Youngsil. It's odd about Sukju, Jeong says, because he hasn't even passed his civil servant exams yet. Sejong wants him here just because of his language expertise...Then the pieces fall into place and Jeong figures it out...At the same time, Choi Manli does too: "Does this mean that wasn't a joke?" "No way--this is insane! The king...the king is...the king is trying to crate a new writing system"...Flashback to the debate scene in the previous episode; Sejong's offhand comment about a new writing system, which seemed risky at the time (apparently it was too risky after all)...Flashback ending, back to Jeong: "He wasn't joking." Youngsil tells him not to jump to conclusions, but Jeong says, "No, the chances are my guess is right. He knew we couldn't deal with something as big as this." He's calmly trying to absorb it all...But Choi isn't calm at all: "We must stop the creation of a new writing system! The regency is proof that it is true! Why else would the king suddenly give the government to his son?"
Gang Hui informs Jachi and Ogeun that searches of the whole palace have failed to turn up the two maids. "The crown prince should be informed," Jachi says. "Anything can happen now. He has to brace himself."
Ogeun goes to the crown prince....
We see Sosang and Danji. They've come to Choi Manli's house!
The queen has gone to see her husband. They take turns taking blame. The queen goes first: "It's my fault. Your shoulders are heavy as it is with state affairs, and I have added to our burden. I don't know how I could ever make up for this." King's turn: "You are a cruel woman. And you're a foolish woman as well. How could you hold yourself responsible for someone else's failure and so thoroughly blame yourself? Scold me instead. I claim to be the father of all people, but I don't even know what is gong on with my own son, let alone take notice of his pain. You should blame me and scold me instead." Another turn: "I know too much of your own pain and struggle to do that to you." "I hope I am not too late. I want to share my son's pain. No, I want so suffer his pain for him if it's possible." Whew.
Choi is looking at the drawings brought by Sosang and Danji. "Will you help us now?", they ask. "Sure, why not? Guard!" Guards come in (why does Choi Manli have guards?) and take the girls into custody. They protest, but Choi tells them, "Quiet down and behave yourselves if you don't want to die this instant." And he goes outside to think. Jeong and Gim follow him: "Are you going to have the girls killed?" Maybe: "They threatened the crown prince and patronized the crown princess." But Gim tells him, "If you're right about the king's plan, you should stop the regency." And Jeong adds, saying what we already assume Choi must be thinking, "This is your weapon."
Hyang enters his chambers and is surprised to find his father waiting for him. "Don't just stand there. Come and sit down." They share a bit of food and drink. "I guess we've never had a casual drink like this before. What am I doing that's so important that I can't make time for a drink with my own son?" But Hyang is uncomfortable: "I know you want to talk." Then he talks, trying to tell him the status of his work, that Jinyang is "intelligent and prudent, so he should do a good job for you if you command him," and that he'll leave the city with his wife tomorrow. "Then the world will see my wife as a good woman who gave up the glory of the crown to take care of her feeble husband. This is the only way to preserve the honor of the royal house..." But Sejong cuts him off: "You are more important to me than the honor of the royal house, son!" Then some more blame-taking, Sejong first: "I'm sorry for making you suffer alone. I'm sorry for being such a distant father that you couldn't approach me to share your pain with." "I'm sorry father. I didn't want to disappoint you, but I just couldn't get myself to embrace that woman." Sejong tells him, You did nothing wrong and this isn't your fault (hmmm...).
The next day: Hyang and Choi Manli encounter each other in a hallway. Hyang is visiting the various offices in preparation for the regency. "Is that so?" Choi smiles, at him, a confident, devious smile. Hyang tells him he hopes he has the support of the Hall of Worthies.
At the archery grounds: The king is shooting, the queen watching. Sejong says he's proud of how Hyang is holding up. The queen still thinks they should have deposed the crown princess (so they obviously didn't). But Hyang apparently is willing to bear the situation. And the poor princess, "The palace is like hell to her now." Sejong wants to find the two palace maids and "take care of things," (whatever that means), but Hyang doesn't want a scandal. Besides, Soheon tells him, he can endure this because "the first thing Hyang learned from you is bearing pain and enduring hardship."
Choi tells Jeong and Gim, "Forget about the crown princess for now," which surprises them. They accuse him of going soft on his pupil Hyang and letting personal feelings interfere with politics.
Hamgil Province in the north: Gim Jongsuh is with the Mongolian messenger, who's still there and is getting impatient because he doesn't have an answer to his message yet. Gim is still waiting for word from the king.
Sejong, Hwang Hee, Meng Sasung and Jo Malseng discuss the Mongolian situation. We learn that Mongolia has requested the new technology. Hwang advises taking care of this before the regency takes hold.
In the secret language research room: Yun Hwe collapses again from the pain in his side. Sukju tries to help him, and even offers him a drink of wine from a jug to help with the pain, that's how severe it appears to be. Yun won't take it. But then he hears someone coming down the stairs. Still in visible pain, he quickly splashes wine all over both of them, tells Sukju to say nothing, and lies down on the floor. It's Sejong he heard coming. "What is going on here?" Still incapacitated, Yun has made it look like he's drunk again rather than telling the king about his illness. Sukju tries to tell the truth, but Yun cuts him off: "Kid, telling him that you drank with me won't change anything!" Sejong scolds both of them--severely--and storms out. Sukju wants his grandfather to tell Sejong the truth and resign from office to attend to his health, but of course he won't do it.
Yun is before Sejong, who takes his mini-cup away from him and tosses it in a drawer. You haven't been looking well lately, he tells Yun; he's concerned besides being angry. "I'm not exactly a young man any more, your majesty," he says, but then smiling and trying to deflect the issue, "It doesn't feel half bad to know that you still love me." Trying to be cute, he smiles wider. "In return for your love, I will go and take care of the Mongolia situation."
We see Toghon, leader of the Oirat Mongolian tribes. Yun Hwe has led a party to Mongolia and has just presented Toghon with a large rolled-up piece of paper. "This is the design your government requested," Yun says. Toghon is obviously very pleased to have it. We're left to wonder why Joseon is giving Mongolia weapons technology when they've tried so hard to keep it secret from Ming. Doesn't make sense.
Riding back from Mongolia, the Joseonese come under fire from archers and then are surrounded by soldiers...led by Huang Zan! Huang announces, "We have reason to believe Joseon is exchanging very dangerous information with great Ming's enemy Mongolia!" Yikes.
Apparently somewhere in Ming: Yun is being questioned by Wang Zhen. (Double yikes.) Wang demands to know what the Joseonese were doing in Mongolia.
We see Toghon unfurl the paper and study the drawing--of a waterwheel!
Turns out, Joseon gave the Mongols a plan for one of their fancy irrigation waterwheels in exchange for a Mongolian rhyming dictionary called Menggu Ziyun. Sure fooled us, and made Ming look downright stupid. "Now," Yun says, "shall we talk about Ming's baseless suspicion and contemptuous action towards a sister country?" We get the impression from Huang Zan that the faulty information came from Dongchang, because he tells Yun (with Wang sitting right there) that he'll deal himself with those who "extracted false information and incited trouble in the Ming-Joseon relationship."
The three troublemaking scholars discuss the latest events. Along with the Mongolian text being acquired, we learn that Sukju has been to Japan to acquire Japanese script, and he's even being sent to India next. What do all three places have in common? They all have their own writing. All of it is "crude, inferior script," they agree. And they agree that something has to be done.
Evening: Choi has come to see Hyang, bringing the scandalous drawings with him. Hyang wants to know how Choi got the drawings, but Choi sidesteps the question and asks Hyang if he wants this concealed. A still-befuddled Hyang asks in return, "What do you want, master?" "For you to become a good king. And for that, I'm wiling to cover this up." He continues, "His majesty the king is on a very dangerous path right now. He could very well lead the country to doom on this path." And he spills the beans about the writing system. Hyang hadn't been told yet; his eyes widen. A different writing system, Choi says, is something "that only barbarians resort to creating for themselves. The king knows just how risky this is. That's why he is doing this on his own without even consulting the scholars. And to do this, what he needs most is time...It just so happens that tomorrow is your first day [as regent]. But you must decline. That's the only way to stop the king from pursuing this dangerous endeavor." And if I don't decline?, Hyang asks. Without hesitation Choi tells his pupil, "We will become political enemies. I'm a politician who knows how to exploit my opposition's weakness if it is for the good of the country."
Hyang has gone to his father and told him everything, and asked him about the writing system project. "It's all true," Sejong acknowledges. "What can I do to make you call it off?" Obviously nothing, because Sejong tells him that this is something that the people need. Hyang counters, You'll need the support of good men (and the officials would strongly oppose the project). And we know that he'll need Hyang to accept the regency. But if he does, Choi will expose the scandal. You have a tough decision to make, Sejong observes, since you obviously don't want to lose Choi. But Sejong surprises us (surprised me, at least) by stepping completely away from it, making no attempt to sway his son. "I've turned over the state affairs to you as of today," he tells him (must be after midnight). "So it's your call."
Alone at night, Hyang thinks.
The next morning: Hyang is standing alone in a courtyard. Choi approaches him. His back to Choi, Hyang tells him, "The Hall of Worthies' first assignment is editing the Classification of Pathologies." Sounds like a very routine assignment...but Hyang is actually giving the assignment. Choi asks, "What does this mean?" The prince turns around to face him: "Why else would I be giving you an assignment? I'm accepting the regency." Choi glares. "Then the world will take the future throne from you. I've warned you. I'm a politician before I am your mentor." Hyang glares fearlessly back at Choi, showing a determination and courage we've never seen in him. "Walk the path you have chosen for yourself, master. I will do the same."