Post by ajk on Oct 7, 2009 12:47:34 GMT -5
Sure enough, the swords start to fly. Sa Illa begs Hyangbi to give up but Hyangbi keeps attacking, from fury and maybe from fear for her life as well. Sa Illa is too rattled to fight well, and soon Hyangbi knocks her down and puts the sword to her throat. "Who is Kim Chiyang? Talk. Or I swear I'll kill you." But Sa Illa won't talk. Not a word. Will Hyangbi really kill her? She hesitates...but we'll never know. Because suddenly there's a whoosh, and an arrow buries itself in Hyangbi's back. Chiyang shot it. He sent Sa Illa to chase Hyangbi and then snuck up and shot Hyangbi in the back. What a great guy. Hyangbi collapses on top of Sa Illa, and dies as she calls softly for her husband. Sa Illa freaks out, screaming for her dead friend.
Gang Jo charges out of his house, holding Hyanbgi's note.
"Stop now." Chiyang wants no more of Sa Illa's crying. "I said stop!" She gets angry at Chiyang for killing Hyangbi, so Chiyang slugs her and knocks her down. What a great guy. "She found out about my secret," he says. "You would have all of us die to keep her alive?"
Gang Jo goes to the palace...
Back in the woods: Mun Inui shows up to check on things. (How did he know where to find them? Ugh.) Chiyang tells him to take the body and hide it for now.
Gang Jo goes to see Cheonchu, still looking for Hyangbi. And he asks about Mun Inui; obviously he has some suspicions.
Go Hyun introduces Yu Chungjeong, the new attendant, to the emperor. Mokjong is sullen and drinking, still crushed by the Milhwa scandal, and doesn't care.
What are they going to do about Hyangbi's body? Chiyang tells him to send out the call for loyal Jurchens--"men who are willing to die for our cause"; dress them in east Jurchen uniforms and have them attack the West River Village. Apparently they're going to phony something up.
West River Village: A wrestling tournament is taking place by the riverside and the whole village is watching and enjoying it. Suddenly arrows come flying in and killing people--from an approaching boat. The attackers land and ravage through the village, killing, setting fires, kidnapping women. Sa Gamun is there watching it unfold. In the middle of it all, Hyangbi's body is laid.
Goryeo military headquarters: A messenger brings a report about the raid. Troops are dispatched.
Yu Bang informs Cheonchu of the Jurchen raid. She orders pursuit of the invaders. This is a particularly brazen attack, right on the outskirts of the capital, and she's angry about it.
Sa Gamun reports to Chiyang that the job is done, and that the Jurchens have been instructed to allow themselves to get caught. Mun Inui is with them and reminds them of another problem--Kim Shimun and what he'll be thinking when he hears that Hyangbi is dead. And they can't kill him, not with one death to deal with already. But Chiyang is more concerned about how much Gang Jo knows.
Dokyun is wondering what happened after Hyangbi ran away, so Sa Gamun has to tell her that Hyangbi is dead. He lies and tells her it was because she heard them talking about their failed attempt to kill Prince Daeryang. Dokyun says she's becoming frightened of Chiyang: "He kills everyone who gets in his way. I can't help thinking that you and I and our son Ryang might end up like Hyangbi as well." Sa Gamun says he'll protect them, but that doesn't appear to comfort her very much.
Gang Jo is still searching. Kim Sukheung finds him and escorts him to the raided village, where Hyangbi's body lays among the massacre victims. Jo holds her and begs her to wake up...it's just a terribly sad scene.
Cheonchu is informed. She angrily orders the culprits caught at all costs.
Jo has brought Hyangbi's body home. Kim Sukheung is still with him and gently reminds him about making funeral arrangements. But Jo is oblivious. "It's not the Jurchens," he mutters, and without another word he grabs his spear and walks off...
...to Chiyang's home. Almost before we know it, he's batting Sa Gamun aside like a flea and is about to kill Chiyang! "Hyangbi finally got the proof to unveil your devious mask," he growls; "That's why you killed her with your evil hands!" He's just about to strike him dead when Yang Kyu and a squad of troops come in to escort Jo away. Jo won't go and puts up a fight, so Yang is forced to knock him unconscious from behind. Jo is taken back to his home. Chiyang was wounded in the incident and is bleeding, but he'll be okay.
"Minster Gang attacked you?" It's a state council meeting; Cheonchu is presiding (Where's Mokjong? Ugh). Chiyang is squealing on Gang Jo. Choe Hang is suspicious and speaks up: "But why would he attack you if there was no reason?" Dae Dosu wonders if the assailants were from Chiyang's tribe and that was what provoked Jo. But Chiyang feigns indignation at the very suggestion of that.
Gamchan is with Gang Jo, who's just told him what Hyangbi had been investigating. Jo shows him her last note. "This is indeed suspicious," Gamchan says. Jo incorrectly believes it was the Jurchens who killed her, but he does correctly deduce the source of the attackers. It would make no sense, he's realized, for eastern Jurchens to travel so far by boat just to attack a small village. "Kim Chiyang put his men in East Jurchen attire and put them up to this." Gamchan replies, "Then you made a big mistake going to Chiyang" and confronting him, because now he knows you're on to him. Jo says he doesn't need evidence any more--"I'm going to kill him with my hands"--but Gamchan urges him to be rational and calmly seek the truth so that his wife can have peace. Gamchan promises he'll expose the truth and deliver justice.
Kim Shimun is pacing around the palace grounds, his conversation with Hyangbi occupying his mind. Chiyang finds him, and asks him questions about the meeting he had with Mun Inui. Kim eventually says, "This probing leads me to believe perhaps you're really connected to Minister Gang Jo's wife's death like he suspects." Chiyang laughs that off and says he doesn't want Gang Jo thinking any such thing. And then he not so subtly suggests to Shimun that he better keep quiet about the whole thing, or else his relationship with Wonsoong be revealed and he be implicated in Wonsoong's crimes. "Rumors can destroy an innocent man," Chiyang says deviously. In other words, I'll spread rumors, true or not. "Let's not put each other in a spot where we could be wrongly accused."
The emperor and empress are told of Hyangbi's death. Mokjong is unfazed and even coldly cynical about it: "People die all the time around this crazy place."
Cheonchu comes to pay her respects to the deceased. She and Hyangbi had a long history together, so the death hits her hard. Gamchan is there too. Cheonchu gently asks Jo about his holding Chiyang responsible and whether or not he has evidence of this. Rather than say anything or show her Hyangbi's note, Jo takes Gamchan's advice, holds his cards for now and simply asks Cheonchu's forgiveness for blaming Chiyang. Cheonchu offers to personally arrange for a grand funeral for Hyangbi, but Jo doesn't want that; just a simple cremation, with her ashes scattered over the former Jeong-an territory (by the Yalu River). That's where they planned to settle together eventually.
We see the Jurchen assailants on a riverbank, menacing the women they've kidnapped. Goryean troops rush in and kill some of them and rescue the women. The remaining Jurchens are captured for interrogation.
Choe Hang informs Cheonchu that the invaders were captured. And he also needs to discuss something else: "Public sentiment is turning against the state, your highness." He believes it's because of conscription and tax collection policies. (Now wait just a darned minute--this is a very big deal! And this is how it's introduced? Simply by a minister mentioning it? I thought Mokjong was doing a great job and had public support. What happened to all that? AUUGHH.) Cheonchu says she'll discuss that another time; the Jurchens must be interrogated.
Sa Gamun informs Chiyang that the Jurchens were captured; the plan is for them to confess that they acted alone and then be executed. But will Gang Jo buy that? Probably not. And they can't exactly kill him to get rid of him. Chiyang ponders this. "If I can't kill him, I'll have to send him away. Somewhere far from Gaegyeong."
Yet another prime-time evening session in the torture yard: We see Cheonchu interrogating the Jurchens, who have already been tortured a bit. They confess to the attack--"We did it to survive"--and say that Goryeo's regional army was guarding the eastern border region, which forced them to the west. Dae Dosu says their story fits the circumstances and so they're probably telling the truth. And they say that "a woman warrior" was on the scene and killed several of their men, so they had to kill her in defense.
Chiyang is with several of the younger ministers, apparently at a restaurant or gisaeng house. He asks them how they feel about Gang Jo attacking him. He's trying to make trouble for Jo. And he succeeds; the ministers (who aren't friends of the military to begin with; these are the same ministers who have whined in state council meetings about the stipend land policy expansion) don't think Jo was justified in attacking Chiyang, even in his grief. Chiyang thanks them for their "comforting words." Kim Shimun is there too but he simply broods and listens and says nothing.
Choe Hang tells Gang Jo that the Jurchens confessed and that the confession seems to be accurate. "Why would they give a false confession at the cost of their lives?"
The emperor is having a nightmare; Milhwa is haunting him. "I don't want to go to hell alone," she's saying. "Come with me. My child's soul will not leave you alone." She reaches for him and hugs him....He wakes up sweating and frightened, and calls out for wine. The new attendant Yu Chungjeong comes in, but refuses to bring wine! It's dawn, Yu explains, and it's not healthy for you to be drinking at this hour, and "It's my duty to attend to your health." Wow, the new guy has a heck of a backbone.
Liao: Chengtian is in bed with pneumonia. The physician has recommended a trip to the southern capital to recuperate; the temperatures there are warmer. Prime Minister Han is trying to talk her into it. Shengzong seems oddly intrigued by the idea of her taking that trip. But we're not sure why.
We see Hyangbi's funeral pyre burning. Monks are performing a ceremony.
A simple house somewhere far from the capital: Jo Sun and Princess Jeong have come to see the exiled Yunheung. She's not allowed visitors, and the house is actually guarded by soldiers in order to enforce that rule. But Jo slips the head guard a bribe and they're let in. Inside, Jeong is disheartened by the modest living conditions, and Yunheung tells her with surprising detachment that she's contemplated suicide several times. "But I couldn't go through with it," she says, "because of you." Jeong tells her mother that she and Jo Sun are living on the outskirts of the capital; Jo had managed to keep some coins hidden away (probably counterfeit ones) so they're managing to survive, at least. Yunheung sees no hope of ever returning to the capital, since she's even turned the emperor against her.
Mokjong has summoned Yu Hangan. They haven't seen much of each other since Hangan's promotion. Mokjong has a favor to ask....
State council meeting: Cheonchu is presiding. (Where's Mokjong this time? Come on already.) Chiyang has something to say to Gang Jo and wants to do it during the meeting. Chiyang tells Jo he's sorry for Jo's loss, but "don't you owe me an apology since the perpetrators have been captured?" He's trying to goad Jo into losing his temper and doing something stupid. He says smugly that "the contempt I felt is not easily forgotten." Jo promptly walks over to him and takes a swing at him. Chiyang ducks--it wasn't much of a swing--but it does what Chiyang hopes it would do and upsets the ministers tremendously. Gamchan grabs him and pulls him back, but Jo is coming unhinged: "I'll kill you. You bastard, I'll kill you!"
Gang Jo charges out of his house, holding Hyanbgi's note.
"Stop now." Chiyang wants no more of Sa Illa's crying. "I said stop!" She gets angry at Chiyang for killing Hyangbi, so Chiyang slugs her and knocks her down. What a great guy. "She found out about my secret," he says. "You would have all of us die to keep her alive?"
Gang Jo goes to the palace...
Back in the woods: Mun Inui shows up to check on things. (How did he know where to find them? Ugh.) Chiyang tells him to take the body and hide it for now.
Gang Jo goes to see Cheonchu, still looking for Hyangbi. And he asks about Mun Inui; obviously he has some suspicions.
Go Hyun introduces Yu Chungjeong, the new attendant, to the emperor. Mokjong is sullen and drinking, still crushed by the Milhwa scandal, and doesn't care.
What are they going to do about Hyangbi's body? Chiyang tells him to send out the call for loyal Jurchens--"men who are willing to die for our cause"; dress them in east Jurchen uniforms and have them attack the West River Village. Apparently they're going to phony something up.
West River Village: A wrestling tournament is taking place by the riverside and the whole village is watching and enjoying it. Suddenly arrows come flying in and killing people--from an approaching boat. The attackers land and ravage through the village, killing, setting fires, kidnapping women. Sa Gamun is there watching it unfold. In the middle of it all, Hyangbi's body is laid.
Goryeo military headquarters: A messenger brings a report about the raid. Troops are dispatched.
Yu Bang informs Cheonchu of the Jurchen raid. She orders pursuit of the invaders. This is a particularly brazen attack, right on the outskirts of the capital, and she's angry about it.
Sa Gamun reports to Chiyang that the job is done, and that the Jurchens have been instructed to allow themselves to get caught. Mun Inui is with them and reminds them of another problem--Kim Shimun and what he'll be thinking when he hears that Hyangbi is dead. And they can't kill him, not with one death to deal with already. But Chiyang is more concerned about how much Gang Jo knows.
Dokyun is wondering what happened after Hyangbi ran away, so Sa Gamun has to tell her that Hyangbi is dead. He lies and tells her it was because she heard them talking about their failed attempt to kill Prince Daeryang. Dokyun says she's becoming frightened of Chiyang: "He kills everyone who gets in his way. I can't help thinking that you and I and our son Ryang might end up like Hyangbi as well." Sa Gamun says he'll protect them, but that doesn't appear to comfort her very much.
Gang Jo is still searching. Kim Sukheung finds him and escorts him to the raided village, where Hyangbi's body lays among the massacre victims. Jo holds her and begs her to wake up...it's just a terribly sad scene.
Cheonchu is informed. She angrily orders the culprits caught at all costs.
Jo has brought Hyangbi's body home. Kim Sukheung is still with him and gently reminds him about making funeral arrangements. But Jo is oblivious. "It's not the Jurchens," he mutters, and without another word he grabs his spear and walks off...
...to Chiyang's home. Almost before we know it, he's batting Sa Gamun aside like a flea and is about to kill Chiyang! "Hyangbi finally got the proof to unveil your devious mask," he growls; "That's why you killed her with your evil hands!" He's just about to strike him dead when Yang Kyu and a squad of troops come in to escort Jo away. Jo won't go and puts up a fight, so Yang is forced to knock him unconscious from behind. Jo is taken back to his home. Chiyang was wounded in the incident and is bleeding, but he'll be okay.
"Minster Gang attacked you?" It's a state council meeting; Cheonchu is presiding (Where's Mokjong? Ugh). Chiyang is squealing on Gang Jo. Choe Hang is suspicious and speaks up: "But why would he attack you if there was no reason?" Dae Dosu wonders if the assailants were from Chiyang's tribe and that was what provoked Jo. But Chiyang feigns indignation at the very suggestion of that.
Gamchan is with Gang Jo, who's just told him what Hyangbi had been investigating. Jo shows him her last note. "This is indeed suspicious," Gamchan says. Jo incorrectly believes it was the Jurchens who killed her, but he does correctly deduce the source of the attackers. It would make no sense, he's realized, for eastern Jurchens to travel so far by boat just to attack a small village. "Kim Chiyang put his men in East Jurchen attire and put them up to this." Gamchan replies, "Then you made a big mistake going to Chiyang" and confronting him, because now he knows you're on to him. Jo says he doesn't need evidence any more--"I'm going to kill him with my hands"--but Gamchan urges him to be rational and calmly seek the truth so that his wife can have peace. Gamchan promises he'll expose the truth and deliver justice.
Kim Shimun is pacing around the palace grounds, his conversation with Hyangbi occupying his mind. Chiyang finds him, and asks him questions about the meeting he had with Mun Inui. Kim eventually says, "This probing leads me to believe perhaps you're really connected to Minister Gang Jo's wife's death like he suspects." Chiyang laughs that off and says he doesn't want Gang Jo thinking any such thing. And then he not so subtly suggests to Shimun that he better keep quiet about the whole thing, or else his relationship with Wonsoong be revealed and he be implicated in Wonsoong's crimes. "Rumors can destroy an innocent man," Chiyang says deviously. In other words, I'll spread rumors, true or not. "Let's not put each other in a spot where we could be wrongly accused."
The emperor and empress are told of Hyangbi's death. Mokjong is unfazed and even coldly cynical about it: "People die all the time around this crazy place."
Cheonchu comes to pay her respects to the deceased. She and Hyangbi had a long history together, so the death hits her hard. Gamchan is there too. Cheonchu gently asks Jo about his holding Chiyang responsible and whether or not he has evidence of this. Rather than say anything or show her Hyangbi's note, Jo takes Gamchan's advice, holds his cards for now and simply asks Cheonchu's forgiveness for blaming Chiyang. Cheonchu offers to personally arrange for a grand funeral for Hyangbi, but Jo doesn't want that; just a simple cremation, with her ashes scattered over the former Jeong-an territory (by the Yalu River). That's where they planned to settle together eventually.
We see the Jurchen assailants on a riverbank, menacing the women they've kidnapped. Goryean troops rush in and kill some of them and rescue the women. The remaining Jurchens are captured for interrogation.
Choe Hang informs Cheonchu that the invaders were captured. And he also needs to discuss something else: "Public sentiment is turning against the state, your highness." He believes it's because of conscription and tax collection policies. (Now wait just a darned minute--this is a very big deal! And this is how it's introduced? Simply by a minister mentioning it? I thought Mokjong was doing a great job and had public support. What happened to all that? AUUGHH.) Cheonchu says she'll discuss that another time; the Jurchens must be interrogated.
Sa Gamun informs Chiyang that the Jurchens were captured; the plan is for them to confess that they acted alone and then be executed. But will Gang Jo buy that? Probably not. And they can't exactly kill him to get rid of him. Chiyang ponders this. "If I can't kill him, I'll have to send him away. Somewhere far from Gaegyeong."
Yet another prime-time evening session in the torture yard: We see Cheonchu interrogating the Jurchens, who have already been tortured a bit. They confess to the attack--"We did it to survive"--and say that Goryeo's regional army was guarding the eastern border region, which forced them to the west. Dae Dosu says their story fits the circumstances and so they're probably telling the truth. And they say that "a woman warrior" was on the scene and killed several of their men, so they had to kill her in defense.
Chiyang is with several of the younger ministers, apparently at a restaurant or gisaeng house. He asks them how they feel about Gang Jo attacking him. He's trying to make trouble for Jo. And he succeeds; the ministers (who aren't friends of the military to begin with; these are the same ministers who have whined in state council meetings about the stipend land policy expansion) don't think Jo was justified in attacking Chiyang, even in his grief. Chiyang thanks them for their "comforting words." Kim Shimun is there too but he simply broods and listens and says nothing.
Choe Hang tells Gang Jo that the Jurchens confessed and that the confession seems to be accurate. "Why would they give a false confession at the cost of their lives?"
The emperor is having a nightmare; Milhwa is haunting him. "I don't want to go to hell alone," she's saying. "Come with me. My child's soul will not leave you alone." She reaches for him and hugs him....He wakes up sweating and frightened, and calls out for wine. The new attendant Yu Chungjeong comes in, but refuses to bring wine! It's dawn, Yu explains, and it's not healthy for you to be drinking at this hour, and "It's my duty to attend to your health." Wow, the new guy has a heck of a backbone.
Liao: Chengtian is in bed with pneumonia. The physician has recommended a trip to the southern capital to recuperate; the temperatures there are warmer. Prime Minister Han is trying to talk her into it. Shengzong seems oddly intrigued by the idea of her taking that trip. But we're not sure why.
We see Hyangbi's funeral pyre burning. Monks are performing a ceremony.
A simple house somewhere far from the capital: Jo Sun and Princess Jeong have come to see the exiled Yunheung. She's not allowed visitors, and the house is actually guarded by soldiers in order to enforce that rule. But Jo slips the head guard a bribe and they're let in. Inside, Jeong is disheartened by the modest living conditions, and Yunheung tells her with surprising detachment that she's contemplated suicide several times. "But I couldn't go through with it," she says, "because of you." Jeong tells her mother that she and Jo Sun are living on the outskirts of the capital; Jo had managed to keep some coins hidden away (probably counterfeit ones) so they're managing to survive, at least. Yunheung sees no hope of ever returning to the capital, since she's even turned the emperor against her.
Mokjong has summoned Yu Hangan. They haven't seen much of each other since Hangan's promotion. Mokjong has a favor to ask....
State council meeting: Cheonchu is presiding. (Where's Mokjong this time? Come on already.) Chiyang has something to say to Gang Jo and wants to do it during the meeting. Chiyang tells Jo he's sorry for Jo's loss, but "don't you owe me an apology since the perpetrators have been captured?" He's trying to goad Jo into losing his temper and doing something stupid. He says smugly that "the contempt I felt is not easily forgotten." Jo promptly walks over to him and takes a swing at him. Chiyang ducks--it wasn't much of a swing--but it does what Chiyang hopes it would do and upsets the ministers tremendously. Gamchan grabs him and pulls him back, but Jo is coming unhinged: "I'll kill you. You bastard, I'll kill you!"
