Post by ajk on Apr 16, 2009 16:47:26 GMT -5
Another village celebration as Hunae and company return home. Gamchan must return to the capital and deliver his report to the king; Hunae wants to go with him to see her son.
Prince's Hall, Royal Palace: Hunae is denied admission. The guard says her visit opportunity expired with the installation and she missed her chance. She pleads with guard, but he says it's the king's order. Then she starts yelling for him to come out. The little prince is in there, hears her and gets visibly rattled as she shrieks. Then the king’s eunuch Go Hyun shows up and says the king wants to see her.
The king tells Hunae he has no sympathy for her missing the installation. She points out that his sister and the servants who raised him were in danger and she had to go. They argue about her actions in the north; he gets angry and says This defiance is why I took away your son. No it wasn't, she counters; you took him when I was young, before any of this started; what was your reason then? Good point, and it hits home. So he makes her a sweeping proposal. I'll let you see your son as often as you want IF you'll leave Myeongbok Palace to our sister, come back here to Sungdeok Palace, "focus on building womanly virtues" and forget about the Jurchens. He tells her, "I don't want to lose you like I lost grandmother."
Myeongbok Palace, Hwangju: Prince Gyeongjuwon and Hunjeong are talking, awkwardly. She reminisces about him teaching her music ten years ago, and tells him how much it meant to her. And then, gingerly, "Where were you all this time?" He talks about chasing after "the blue hue of the sky. It's...complicated." (Okay, pal, whatever floats your boat.) "Did you...marry?" No, he didn't. "Providing for a family is a big responsibility." She tells him she thought about him "a lot" and then confesses to "yearning" for him, and stats to tear up. "I wanted to ask you if you felt the same way for me." He tells her she's the late king's dowager and that there are things she can't keep in her heart (meaning, other men). Then why teach me music?, she asks in frustration.
Gang Gamchan tells Seo Hui that he thinks the Khitans might be more of a threat than the Jurchens, because their forcing Jurchen tribes out of Liaodong suggest they might be planning to conquer Goryeo. We need to establish friendly relations with them, Gang says, and head this off. They must be unhappy with us because we've become submissive to Song. But that submission is the king's direct policy, Seo reminds him, and he's not likely to favor anything that could be interpreted as pro-Khitan.
A brief martial-arts training scene with Yi Sulhwa, Sa Gamun and Sa Illa. Kim Chiyang is there too, and laughingly claims he’s not much of a fighter (despite what he showed in the “battle” in Ep10). Gang Jo watches the scene and listens with suspicion. (The Goryean mystery woman Suri is there too.)
Hunae goes to visit Queen Mundeok and her daughter Sun. The queen tells her she's dying and asks her to take care of her daughter when she's gone. "I always envied you," she explains. You followed your heart in whatever you did, but "I never had the courage to live my life the way I wanted. I don't want my daughter to live like her foolish mother. Take her and raise her to be free like you. And if a good man should come along, don't look at his social position or finances. Just marry her off to a man who will love her." At that last part we suddenly feel her pain of a loveless marriage. "Please let her live her life not as a woman but as a human being." Hunae willingly accepts. It’s a very sad scene.
Narration tells us that Mundeok was King Gwangjong’s daughter and had married Prince Heungdeokwon, with whom she had a daughter (obviously referring to Sun; this finally gives us the backstory on her first marriage). The daughter is the future Queen Sunjeong, wife of King Mokjong. We’re also told that her remarriage suggests that Goryean woman of the time were not bound by strict Confucian ideals.
That evening, guards go to Hunae; it's time for her to leave the palace complex and they've been ordered to escort her out. From a distance, the little prince watches his mother leave, with sadness. Lady Yunheung finds him; he denies watching Hunae, but he's agitated and uncomfortable.
Nighttime, in the woods, somewhere: a frantic mother carrying her baby, is running, struggling through the woods as if being chased. She meets a man with a horse. Get on the horse, he says. No, she tells him, just take the child, I'll divert the men following us. She tells her infant, "You must survive and preserve the glory of one thousand years. You must survive. You must." She tearfully parts with her child; the man takes it, bows to her and rides off. She falls to the ground in tears. Then her pursuers emerge! A squad of troops on horseback with arrows and torches. A single arrow is shot and she falls! Turns out, this is a dream and Kim Chiyang wakes up from it all sweating and agitated. Sa Gamun, also in the room, asks if he's okay, in the process calling him "master." None of that, Chiyang says; call me "Foreman" Kim from now on.
Hunae is back home, looking unhappy from events. She meets Gyeongjuwon again and is happy to see him, but when she learns he's waiting for Gamchan to arrive in a couple of days, tells him she'll have a horse ready for him to leave with Gamchan. She's very nice about it but says, "I just want to protect my naive younger sister." He says he understands and certainly he does, but it sure looks like he's been hit hard by Hunjeong's confession of love for him.
Gang Jo has obviously instructed a subordinate to do an independent investigation of Chiyang; the subordinate is making his report. Chiyang’s tribe, it turns out, is not purely Jurchen. It's a mixed Goryean/Jurchen tribe; this dates back 50 years to when a group several hundred Goryean men came out of nowhere and killed the Jurchen chief. The new chief brought a 12-year-old in from a temple somewhere and adopted him as his son. (Which seems to be in line with Chiyang’s story.)
Chiyang tells Hunae he wants to start a trading business and earn money to help his people. He even has a list of items he proposes to trade to Jurchens. But he says trading with the Jurchens is just the first step; ultimately he wants to expand to trading with the Khitans. Because there's no trade between Song and Khitan, he explains, Chinese items like silk and books are almost impossible for Khitans to get and can command huge prices. Interesting business plan, but Hunae is too distracted to consider it clearly. She tells him she'll think about it. Then out of the blue she asks him about when he left his mother, that is, when she and his family were killed because of the treasonous plot. Admirably un-rattled by the question, he says it was as an infant; I don't even remember her face. "I'd still give everything to see her, but I can't because she's gone."
Seo Hui asks Choe Ryang to convince the king to tour the north and pay more attention to the northern frontier and its defense. Ryang reminds Sui that king doesn't want a military presence there, fearing it would lead to conflict. But Hui sees this as a huge problem, an otherwise-benevolent king's one big weakness.
Hunae tells her sister that she has to cast out her feelings for Gyeongjuwon, because she was the king's wife. But that's not right, Hunjeong argues. He wasn't really my husband; we never even touched each other and had no feelings for each other. "I let [Gyeongjuwon] go once to protect our brother and our clan, and you want me to give him up again after ten years of waiting? Why do I have to? What did I ever do?" Nothing, Hunae admits. "Then help me. I don't want to grow old and die alone. I'm a woman. I want to be loved." He doesn't feel the same way, Hunae tries to tell her. "Yes, he does. He may deny it but his eyes say otherwise." (Which may or may not be true; beats me.) No, Hunae says, I can't allow it (why does she get to say?). Her sister is devastated.
The king tells Choe Ryang, who's just proposed a trip to the north, that he was thinking about that very thing anyway. He's concerned about public sentiment and particularly about the sentiment that Hunae may be stirring up in the region. "I feel bad for my sister but at the same time I'm afraid of her. Is she really my complete opposite?" That stupid astrological mumbo-jumbo that Jimong once fed him has him beyond worried. "I'm afraid I might end up having to kill my own sister."
Nighttime, Myeongbok Palace: Hunae is mulling over the king's offer....
The king announces to his ministers his trip to the north. The Shillans don't like it, the others do. A southerner/non-southerner debate ensues; then Choe Ryang breaks ranks with the other Shillans and supports the trip. But none of this matters; the king has decided he's going; end of discussion.
Later, the Shillan group complains about Choe Ryang's "betrayal." They fear the possible consequences of the trip, specifically that it might lessen their influence.
Kim Wonsoong goes to visit his daughter Lady Yunheung. He's not thrilled that she's giving the young prince so much attention. "You should be focusing on having a son of your own." She doesn't like that at all. I've raised him since infancy, she says; I'm his mother even though I didn't give birth to him. So Kim asks, what if he becomes king someday--will he favor Hunae? She confesses to being worried about that. Uh-oh; we can see that Kim is scheming and is playing his own daughter, especially now that he sees an opening. Why not let the boy see his mother, he suggests. "Children at that age want more what they can't have. He misses his mother more because he is not allowed to see her. So choose a date and let him see her." Yunheung fears Hunae could be a bad influence on him with her escapades, but Kim tells her the boy will see her for who she is "and you can show him how unselfish and open-minded you are. The child will ultimately end up loving you even more." The king would never allow this, she says. "He doesn't have to know. I know a way." Uh-oh.
Back at Myeongbok Palace: Gang Gamchan and Prince Gyeongjuwon reunite happily after ten years apart. (To my great disappointment,) we don’t see the “huge noogie” that Gamchan promised. Oh well. Then Gamchan goes to Hunae and tells her that the king is coming north. "He is listening to your plea. This is great news." He'll come around and help the people when he sees their plight, Gamchan believes. And he also tells her that he checked out Chiyang's story about his father and the treasonous plot. Gamchan says he was telling the truth. There was indeed a man named Kim Gon who worked for Park Sugyeong of Pyeongju; his family was indeed killed and the young son indeed went missing. "So I think we can trust the man." (But was Chiyang the young son or is he just borrowing the story? Hmmmm....)
Chiyang goes to check out the local village; he had told Hunae it was for his trading-business idea. But we see him meeting someone, a man we never get a good look at because his face is hidden. Chiyang asks, "Are you hanging in there?" "Of course, master." "I'm enduring the hardship and waiting patiently for that day to come." Whatever that means. Chiyang tells him to communicate by carrier pigeon and the man leaves, leaving behind a sealed paper for Chiyang.
Wonsoong tells Choe Sum of a chance to "get rid of" Hunae and her son the prince at the same time. How do you feel about that?, he asks. Choe tells him, "I was thinking of taking some kind of drastic measure myself." We've got the perfect chance, Kim says.
Outside amid falling snowflakes, and then in the family shrine, Hunae is still pondering the king's proposal. She reflect on her grandmother's dying words (which we see in flashback)--her wish to Hunae to "bring your son forward and restore Goryeo"...She asks herself, "What do I do, grandmother?"
Prince's Hall, Royal Palace: Hunae is denied admission. The guard says her visit opportunity expired with the installation and she missed her chance. She pleads with guard, but he says it's the king's order. Then she starts yelling for him to come out. The little prince is in there, hears her and gets visibly rattled as she shrieks. Then the king’s eunuch Go Hyun shows up and says the king wants to see her.
The king tells Hunae he has no sympathy for her missing the installation. She points out that his sister and the servants who raised him were in danger and she had to go. They argue about her actions in the north; he gets angry and says This defiance is why I took away your son. No it wasn't, she counters; you took him when I was young, before any of this started; what was your reason then? Good point, and it hits home. So he makes her a sweeping proposal. I'll let you see your son as often as you want IF you'll leave Myeongbok Palace to our sister, come back here to Sungdeok Palace, "focus on building womanly virtues" and forget about the Jurchens. He tells her, "I don't want to lose you like I lost grandmother."
Myeongbok Palace, Hwangju: Prince Gyeongjuwon and Hunjeong are talking, awkwardly. She reminisces about him teaching her music ten years ago, and tells him how much it meant to her. And then, gingerly, "Where were you all this time?" He talks about chasing after "the blue hue of the sky. It's...complicated." (Okay, pal, whatever floats your boat.) "Did you...marry?" No, he didn't. "Providing for a family is a big responsibility." She tells him she thought about him "a lot" and then confesses to "yearning" for him, and stats to tear up. "I wanted to ask you if you felt the same way for me." He tells her she's the late king's dowager and that there are things she can't keep in her heart (meaning, other men). Then why teach me music?, she asks in frustration.
Gang Gamchan tells Seo Hui that he thinks the Khitans might be more of a threat than the Jurchens, because their forcing Jurchen tribes out of Liaodong suggest they might be planning to conquer Goryeo. We need to establish friendly relations with them, Gang says, and head this off. They must be unhappy with us because we've become submissive to Song. But that submission is the king's direct policy, Seo reminds him, and he's not likely to favor anything that could be interpreted as pro-Khitan.
A brief martial-arts training scene with Yi Sulhwa, Sa Gamun and Sa Illa. Kim Chiyang is there too, and laughingly claims he’s not much of a fighter (despite what he showed in the “battle” in Ep10). Gang Jo watches the scene and listens with suspicion. (The Goryean mystery woman Suri is there too.)
Hunae goes to visit Queen Mundeok and her daughter Sun. The queen tells her she's dying and asks her to take care of her daughter when she's gone. "I always envied you," she explains. You followed your heart in whatever you did, but "I never had the courage to live my life the way I wanted. I don't want my daughter to live like her foolish mother. Take her and raise her to be free like you. And if a good man should come along, don't look at his social position or finances. Just marry her off to a man who will love her." At that last part we suddenly feel her pain of a loveless marriage. "Please let her live her life not as a woman but as a human being." Hunae willingly accepts. It’s a very sad scene.
Narration tells us that Mundeok was King Gwangjong’s daughter and had married Prince Heungdeokwon, with whom she had a daughter (obviously referring to Sun; this finally gives us the backstory on her first marriage). The daughter is the future Queen Sunjeong, wife of King Mokjong. We’re also told that her remarriage suggests that Goryean woman of the time were not bound by strict Confucian ideals.
That evening, guards go to Hunae; it's time for her to leave the palace complex and they've been ordered to escort her out. From a distance, the little prince watches his mother leave, with sadness. Lady Yunheung finds him; he denies watching Hunae, but he's agitated and uncomfortable.
Nighttime, in the woods, somewhere: a frantic mother carrying her baby, is running, struggling through the woods as if being chased. She meets a man with a horse. Get on the horse, he says. No, she tells him, just take the child, I'll divert the men following us. She tells her infant, "You must survive and preserve the glory of one thousand years. You must survive. You must." She tearfully parts with her child; the man takes it, bows to her and rides off. She falls to the ground in tears. Then her pursuers emerge! A squad of troops on horseback with arrows and torches. A single arrow is shot and she falls! Turns out, this is a dream and Kim Chiyang wakes up from it all sweating and agitated. Sa Gamun, also in the room, asks if he's okay, in the process calling him "master." None of that, Chiyang says; call me "Foreman" Kim from now on.
Hunae is back home, looking unhappy from events. She meets Gyeongjuwon again and is happy to see him, but when she learns he's waiting for Gamchan to arrive in a couple of days, tells him she'll have a horse ready for him to leave with Gamchan. She's very nice about it but says, "I just want to protect my naive younger sister." He says he understands and certainly he does, but it sure looks like he's been hit hard by Hunjeong's confession of love for him.
Gang Jo has obviously instructed a subordinate to do an independent investigation of Chiyang; the subordinate is making his report. Chiyang’s tribe, it turns out, is not purely Jurchen. It's a mixed Goryean/Jurchen tribe; this dates back 50 years to when a group several hundred Goryean men came out of nowhere and killed the Jurchen chief. The new chief brought a 12-year-old in from a temple somewhere and adopted him as his son. (Which seems to be in line with Chiyang’s story.)
Chiyang tells Hunae he wants to start a trading business and earn money to help his people. He even has a list of items he proposes to trade to Jurchens. But he says trading with the Jurchens is just the first step; ultimately he wants to expand to trading with the Khitans. Because there's no trade between Song and Khitan, he explains, Chinese items like silk and books are almost impossible for Khitans to get and can command huge prices. Interesting business plan, but Hunae is too distracted to consider it clearly. She tells him she'll think about it. Then out of the blue she asks him about when he left his mother, that is, when she and his family were killed because of the treasonous plot. Admirably un-rattled by the question, he says it was as an infant; I don't even remember her face. "I'd still give everything to see her, but I can't because she's gone."
Seo Hui asks Choe Ryang to convince the king to tour the north and pay more attention to the northern frontier and its defense. Ryang reminds Sui that king doesn't want a military presence there, fearing it would lead to conflict. But Hui sees this as a huge problem, an otherwise-benevolent king's one big weakness.
Hunae tells her sister that she has to cast out her feelings for Gyeongjuwon, because she was the king's wife. But that's not right, Hunjeong argues. He wasn't really my husband; we never even touched each other and had no feelings for each other. "I let [Gyeongjuwon] go once to protect our brother and our clan, and you want me to give him up again after ten years of waiting? Why do I have to? What did I ever do?" Nothing, Hunae admits. "Then help me. I don't want to grow old and die alone. I'm a woman. I want to be loved." He doesn't feel the same way, Hunae tries to tell her. "Yes, he does. He may deny it but his eyes say otherwise." (Which may or may not be true; beats me.) No, Hunae says, I can't allow it (why does she get to say?). Her sister is devastated.
The king tells Choe Ryang, who's just proposed a trip to the north, that he was thinking about that very thing anyway. He's concerned about public sentiment and particularly about the sentiment that Hunae may be stirring up in the region. "I feel bad for my sister but at the same time I'm afraid of her. Is she really my complete opposite?" That stupid astrological mumbo-jumbo that Jimong once fed him has him beyond worried. "I'm afraid I might end up having to kill my own sister."
Nighttime, Myeongbok Palace: Hunae is mulling over the king's offer....
The king announces to his ministers his trip to the north. The Shillans don't like it, the others do. A southerner/non-southerner debate ensues; then Choe Ryang breaks ranks with the other Shillans and supports the trip. But none of this matters; the king has decided he's going; end of discussion.
Later, the Shillan group complains about Choe Ryang's "betrayal." They fear the possible consequences of the trip, specifically that it might lessen their influence.
Kim Wonsoong goes to visit his daughter Lady Yunheung. He's not thrilled that she's giving the young prince so much attention. "You should be focusing on having a son of your own." She doesn't like that at all. I've raised him since infancy, she says; I'm his mother even though I didn't give birth to him. So Kim asks, what if he becomes king someday--will he favor Hunae? She confesses to being worried about that. Uh-oh; we can see that Kim is scheming and is playing his own daughter, especially now that he sees an opening. Why not let the boy see his mother, he suggests. "Children at that age want more what they can't have. He misses his mother more because he is not allowed to see her. So choose a date and let him see her." Yunheung fears Hunae could be a bad influence on him with her escapades, but Kim tells her the boy will see her for who she is "and you can show him how unselfish and open-minded you are. The child will ultimately end up loving you even more." The king would never allow this, she says. "He doesn't have to know. I know a way." Uh-oh.
Back at Myeongbok Palace: Gang Gamchan and Prince Gyeongjuwon reunite happily after ten years apart. (To my great disappointment,) we don’t see the “huge noogie” that Gamchan promised. Oh well. Then Gamchan goes to Hunae and tells her that the king is coming north. "He is listening to your plea. This is great news." He'll come around and help the people when he sees their plight, Gamchan believes. And he also tells her that he checked out Chiyang's story about his father and the treasonous plot. Gamchan says he was telling the truth. There was indeed a man named Kim Gon who worked for Park Sugyeong of Pyeongju; his family was indeed killed and the young son indeed went missing. "So I think we can trust the man." (But was Chiyang the young son or is he just borrowing the story? Hmmmm....)
Chiyang goes to check out the local village; he had told Hunae it was for his trading-business idea. But we see him meeting someone, a man we never get a good look at because his face is hidden. Chiyang asks, "Are you hanging in there?" "Of course, master." "I'm enduring the hardship and waiting patiently for that day to come." Whatever that means. Chiyang tells him to communicate by carrier pigeon and the man leaves, leaving behind a sealed paper for Chiyang.
Wonsoong tells Choe Sum of a chance to "get rid of" Hunae and her son the prince at the same time. How do you feel about that?, he asks. Choe tells him, "I was thinking of taking some kind of drastic measure myself." We've got the perfect chance, Kim says.
Outside amid falling snowflakes, and then in the family shrine, Hunae is still pondering the king's proposal. She reflect on her grandmother's dying words (which we see in flashback)--her wish to Hunae to "bring your son forward and restore Goryeo"...She asks herself, "What do I do, grandmother?"