Post by ajk on Aug 17, 2012 23:06:31 GMT -5
"It's her...How did she...?" Chilsuk's eyes are working pretty darned good for him to pick out Deokman from that distance. Then the chase heads out into the countryside, and Yushin manages to shake off the pursuers.
Seori walks into a meeting of Mishil's cabal. She's looking for Chilsuk--and they think he's with her. Uh-oh; lost him. Seolwon says he'll go search, but he can't even stand up before Chilsuk's arrival is announced. That was convenient...Yes, Chilsuk is still concerned about Sohwa, but he's there to tell Mishil that he can see now, and not just that, to drop the bomb about WHAT he saw. "I saw...the lost twin." None of them can even react to this, it's such an out-of-nowhere piece of news. "I saw the lost twin. In the palace." Pretty soon it sinks in, though, and now they're all sitting there speechless, looking completely blown away.
Imjong and Alcheon report back to Eulje and Yongchun. They're sorry to come back empty-handed, but they do tell Eulje that Deokman had been with Cheonmyeong and he finds that information useful. But Alcheon, as he did in Episode 18, wants Eulje to tell him what this is all about. "Didn't I explain it's for the good of Shilla?" is Eulje's rather dismissive response. It's not good enough, but Yongchun summarily dismisses the two and they have to leave. Eulje and Yongchun still haven't put all of the pieces together, wondering how Deokman got the dagger that the king gave to the lost twin.
"Alive? The lost twin is alive!?" Chilsuk explains to Mishil, "She was dressed as a man, wearing a Hwarang uniform, but it was her." And yes, he tells them, I saw the sandstorm sweep her away, "but apparently it swept her here." Sejong offers some sensible caution: "It's been so long; maybe it wasn't her." But Chilsuk said he'd recognize the facial features anywhere: "It was Deokman." Bomb number two! They're all staggered by this, especially Mishil: "Deokman--did you say Deokman? Deokman the trainee?" They're all staring off into space, neurons overloading...but Mishil, she's putting pieces together. A couple of brief flashbacks...to Episode 8, a young Deokman boldly asking her about Munno...then to Episode 15, when she learns that Deokman can speak Latin...For whatever reason, those two memories seal it. "It's her."
A bit later: They're still all sitting there. It took the rest of them a while, but now it's sunk in. Does the king know? Seolwon doubts it--if he did, why would Eulje be so doggedly investigating all of this? Whatever-- now they need to capture Deokman and do it quickly. But Chilsuk has to tell them she's long gone. Okay, Mishil, what to do now? "Keep quiet, all of you. I need time to think." Yes you do. Not even Mishil can scheme her way through this one so quickly.
Nighttime: Maya and Cheonmyeong meet outside the Hall of Records and are let in. Down in the basement storehouse, they look for Sohwa. Not there! But Eulje is there. "Looking for Sohwa?" Boldly, probably stepping well over the line, he confronts them. "My queen, my princess--what are you hiding from me?" I'm trying to protect the king from Mishil and honor Jinheung's legacy, he reminds them, as I always have. So you mustn't keep secrets from me. Okay, but what did he do with Sohwa and why risk her being spotted by moving her? What's the point?
Concurrently: We're out in the countryside somewhere. Yushin and Deokman have arrived at a small village. An older woman comes outside of one of the houses and greets Yushin warmly. Yushin, we learn, has been taking care of this woman. It's Shiyeol's mother! This is quite a surprise. Yushin hands her a wrapped-up note and asks her to do something he says is difficult: give the note to Goksaheun and Daepung--two of the other DFers who were friends with Shiyeol (and the two who accompanied Deokman on the aborted trip to Mount Jungak (she drugged them, remember)). "You have to place this in their hands. No one else's." She says she's happy to do it.
Well look who's keeping secrets. Eulje has taken the still-dazed Sohwa to that room where he's been holding Jukbang and Godo. Hypocrite. He and Yongchun are questioning the two Hwarang, describing Jinheung's dagger to them. "You've really never seen it?" No, they haven't, or at least Jukbang hasn't. Godo whispers to him that he thinks Deokman has something like that...But look at this: hearing the dagger's description, Sohwa turns and focuses her gaze at Yongchun, looking almost lucid. Eulje asks the pair, "How did you meet Deokman?" They start to explain, but now he's much more interested in seeing Sohwa's growing agitation at hearing that name. Godo explains about Deokman telling them that "Deokman had lost her mom or something, someplace far away"--Sohwa's more and more agitated--"and came to Shilla to find Munno"--and she's almost crying and screaming. Eulje walks over to her and kneels beside her. "Do you know this Deokman?" A tense silence..."Could Deokman be...the baby you had with you?" Yongchun reminds him that Deokman is a boy Hwarang. Is he? Back to Jukbang and Godo: "Is this Deokman a girl?" Godo laughs it off, but Eulje yells at them and scares Jukbang into spilling it. Yongchun and Godo dead-heat the who's-more-surprised contest, while Sohwa sits there in obvious anguish with tears streaming down her face.
"You're sure it's Shiyeol's mom?" One of the royal attendants has come to Goksaheun and Daepung to let them know that they have a visitor. Weird news...but they go out front, and sure enough, there she is. They greet her warmly, and she discreetly slips them the note and tells them it's from Yushin. And scurries away before anyone spots her. Well done, lady. They open up the note and read it. Keeping remarkably calm, considering what the note must say and how unexpected all of this is, they split up and head in separate directions. As they leave, one of Imjong's Hwarang spots them....and follows Goksaheun as he heads to Cheonmyeong's home. "I have a message from Yushin," Goksaheun tells the guard. "Please call the princess's maid Chosun." Yushin's name convinces the guard to go inside and fetch Chosun (nice to finally have her name after all this time). Meanwhile, outside, Eulje and Imjong have shown up and insist--at the point of Imjong's sword--that Goksaheun follow them. So they escort the DFer away...but apparently they rounded the wrong corner because Cheonmyeong is coming right at them! Oops. "He has something for me from Yushin," she says angrily; "How dare you detain him!" But Eulje won't release him. "You can't keep secrets from me," Eulje tells her again. "You swore you wouldn't." Cheonmyeong is silent (Why doesn't she accuse him of the same thing?), so Eulje turns to Goksaheun and says, "You can deliver your message here." Okay, fine...but Goksaheun is hesitant for some reason. "Speak up!", Eulje barks. Looking terribly uncomfortable, Goksaheun offers..."It's only...He said that Lord Eulje is trying to harm Deokman...and would the princess please look into it." Uh-oh...busss-ted. The princess glares at Eulje. "Is that so?"
Now the two of them are in her home and she's reading him the riot act. Eulje is unrepentant, but she keeps at him: "This is MY business. And my mother's. And the king's. Who do you think you are, handling this without the king?" Eulje fires back, "What about you, princess? Have you told the king everything?" Well played, old man. He shouts, "Have you told him that Deokman is the lost twin?" And if there's an All-Time Grand Champion of Bad Timing award, Eulje wins it by a landslide, because who happens to be walking in unannounced as he shouts it but the king and queen. Jinpyeong's eyeballs are just about popping out and he's screaming mad. "What did you say?!?" Nobody wants to answer or even look at him.
Back to Mishil's cabal: Seolwon has solid information that Sohwa is being held at the Department of Royal Affairs. (Huh? What information? How does he know?) "Go get her," Mishil says, unconcerned about the use of royal troops within the palace itself. "Do whatever it takes to get her." This could get ugly. She also wants all of Deokman's "known associates" tailed, and all of her allies around the country alerted to keep watch for Deokman. "We've GOT to find Deokman," she says, in that don't-mess-with-me voice we hear on rare occasions. "Is that clear?" Yeah, it's clear. And more quietly adds, "That's when our real work will begin...." Uh-oh, what's she cooked up now? Nobody has the guts to even ask.
Now it's the king's turn to fry some neurons. "Deokman is...could it be?" Same stunned glaze in his eyes that everybody else has been trying out lately. Queen, princess and Eulje all standing there silently. "How could this happen?" (Well you did send her away in the hope that she'd at least stay alive...) But now he's flashing back...First to the great scene in Episode 8 when he first meets a scraggly Deokman in Manno County, as she confronts Bojong and Mishil...Then to the beginning of Episode 13, after Deokman was tortured for the attempt on Seohyeon's life that she wasn't responsible for...He seems a little calmer now, but still stunned.
Yushin and Deokman are out in the wilderness somewhere, still with their horse. Deokman is sullen and brooding, still believing that the king wanted her dead. But Yushin assures her otherwise: "The king doesn't know." She seems to trust what he tells her, and she reacts like this is truthful. He adds, "Eulje's doing this out of misguided loyalty, I think." (Hey, score one for the rock-smacker. Would not have seen that insight coming from him.) We're going to wait this out, he says, and trust the queen and princess. At the moment the problem is they're out there alone with no supplies, but "I've sent word to my father for help." Hmmm...is that where Daepung headed off to when Goksaheun went to see the princess?
Yes, it is. Daepung is ushered in to see Seohyeon and Manmyeong, and relays the message: Yushin had to leave abruptly and has no supplies, and asks his father to meet him "at the country inn where we went hunting when I was eight years old." (Score another one for Yushin for not spilling the specific location. Somebody took his smart pills today.) Seohyeon doesn't know what this is about, and neither does Daepung. But now who's at the front door--Eulje.
Good heavens, look at all the dead bodies. What's going on? Yushin and Deokman have come to a village where it looks like some sort of plague has broken out. This is Yangji village, and yes, we learn from a villager that it's been quarantined. Lots of big yellow jars standing around; this is how they're burying the dead, or at least storing them to keep from being overwhelmed. Yushin asks about Geumhak village and is assured that it's okay so far. Geumhak is where he's taking Deokman, for whatever reason.
Eulje tells the whole story to Seohyeon, and adds, "No doubt he's contacted you for supplies." Seohyeon stares at him, completely still, betraying nothing. So Eulje presses: "This endangers the royal house. Yushin's in over his head." So what do you want?, Seohyeon calmly asks. Quite an answer: "Return Yushin to the capital. And kill Deokman." Seohyeon doesn't like it. But Eulje has a carrot to offer: He'll arrange for a marriage between the princess and Yushin. "We need an heir, after all. I'm sure the king and princess will agree. But to do that--" Seohyeon cuts him off--"you need Deokman's head." Eulje presses: "What's one little head compared to a kingdom?" Like it or not, from what we know about Seohyeon, you know he at least is going to acknowledge the logic of it.
Now Eulje is with the king, telling him he expects to hear from Seohyeon soon. Jinpyeong looks at him suspiciously. "Tell me...what were your instructions?" Hmmm, will Eulje fess up? Nope! "To place Deokman on a boat to China." A long, uncomfortable silence as Jinpyeong glares at him (and we wonder if the king deduces that Eulje would never order that, because if Deokman came back once already...). "Sire, trust that what I do, I do out of loyalty." Finally the king stops staring at him. "I know," he says. "Leave me." "I do trust you," he mutters softly to himself after Eulje leaves. "In your loyalty, at least." He starts to cry, and his surprised attendant asks him why. "Eulje..." he answers, "plans to kill Deokman." And adds, "I should have killed her myself when she was born, painlessly and quickly." Nah, you're better than that. "How can I make up for what I've done? She has every right to hate me."
Yikes, here comes an ugly standoff. Seolwon and some of the cabal, along with a squad of soldiers, are facing off against Yongchun and some guards outside the Hall of Royal Affairs. Seolwon smugly warns Yongchun of the consequences if he causes blood to be shed--like it would be his fault. But it's enough to make Yongchun yield. Really? Seolwon and his team head into the building, and walk right into the room where Jukbang, Godo and Sohwa are being held. "Get her out of here," Seolwon orders, and his Hwarang comply. And they decide to take Jukbang and Godo too, just in case they might know something useful. But as the three are hauled outside the building, Eulje shows up, with Imjong and several of his Hwarang. Now another standoff. "You dare deploy troops in my department? Answer me!" But Seolwon demands to know who this woman is they've found in the building and why he's holding her. Eulje, incredibly, says nothing. But Seolwon has one: "We have reason to believe she's a Baekje spy." That old excuse again. "An investigation will reveal the truth," he says with a smirk on his face. And just like that, he leads his team away. Sohwa is unceremoniously pushed into a small gama and everyone heads off.
Seolwon reports the good news back to Mishil. She isn't surprised, simply because Eulje had no legal right to stop it from happening. (What?! So that's why Eulje didn't resist? He took Sohwa out of a guarded royal storehouse and put her in his own building where she had no legal protection and Seolwon could just go in and take her? This supposedly sage, wise high official? UGH! Good grief.) Sohwa and Jukbang and Godo, we learn, have been taken to the shrine where Wolchun presently is.
Wolchun receives the party calmly. The three captives are put into a room and the door is locked. Now what? Jukbang starts talking to Sohwa. First he tries to reassure her, not very convincingly, and then just out of innocent curiosity asks, "Are you by any chance Deokman's mother?" She doesn't say anything, but she perks up and calms down. Which looks like yes to Jukbang. "It's a pleasure," he says kindly...and then presses her a bit: "So tell me..what's the deal between the king and Deokman?" Come on, like she's gonna answer that? "Don't cry, just trust us and tell us what's what so we can get out of here. We'll find Deokman for you, so snap out of it, all right?" She's crying and anguished again, but they try to comfort her and get her to tell them something, anything....
Who's this villager? Walking around outside acting almost drunk. But then he goes in to see Seolwon, showing no impairment, and tells him, "We're to meet in the forest a few miles outside the capital, but they didn't say where we're going." Seolwon tells Bojong to give the man a carrier pigeon and tells the man to take it with him. Guessing this is some sort of spy who's keeping tabs on Seohyeon.
Then Seolwon reports this all to Mishil. "We can't have any mistakes," Mishil tells him. Seolwon explains that the man "has been with Seohyeon's retinue since they came to the capital." Yep, a plant. "He's reliable."
Nighttime, out in the countryside: Seohyeon has gathered about a dozen men together. They don't look like soldiers; they're probably Gayans he can trust. The spy is among them. He leads them off somewhere....
"We'll camp here tonight." Yushin and Deokman are out in the woods somewhere and Yushin has found a suitably safe spot to rest. A real good spot, actually, a sort of very short tunnel through the corner of a rocky hill. Two ready exits. Deokman's been thinking, and doesn't see things turning out well for her. "Any way I look at it..." but Yushin cuts her off. "Don't think too much. Just follow orders, same as always." They're hungry and need to forage for some food. Suddenly, though, they hear someone calling, close enough that they snap to their feet. But now what's this? Someone is walking very near them. Someone who was in a dark part of the same sheltered place. Slowly he steps forward out of the darkness, and soon enough we see his face. Who the heck is this guy? A disheveled-looking young man, dressed in plain blue clothes, groggily wandering forth like he just woke up. He looks around, spots Yushin and Deokman staring at him intently...and winks! And then just walks right along, like seeing two Hwarang standing there in the middle of the night is nothing unusual. He walks a little ways and sits down, and three villagers are there waiting for him. One of them must have been the person calling out. They've brought him some plants and herbs--but not the ginger he was hoping for. "My master's gonna be mad." And some chicken; that's received more enthusiastically. "My master's too hard on me," he complains, as he eats some of the chicken. How much weirder is this going to get? Yushin finally steps forward and asks...not for an explanation, but for some of the chicken. We'll pay you for it tomorrow, he promises. Not a real nice answer: "I hate sharing." He snarkily throws a chicken bone in Yushin's direction and starts to walk away...but then whirls and throws a big hunk of chicken at Yushin in an instant--VERY quickly, like he thinks he's some sort of martial artist. Yushin manages to catch it; it was going to hit Deokman. In exchange for some chicken, the man wants to keep Yushin's Hwarang headband until he gets his money. Yushin reluctantly agrees, tosses the man his headband, and tells him to come back tomorrow afternoon for his money. The man smiles and walks away with the villagers, admiring the fancy headband he's holding. That was one odd dude right there.
"What a pain that guy was," Yushin grumbles. "I might have to slap him around tomorrow." (Hey, funny!) He and Deokman head back to the shelter. "Back in the day," he observes ironically, "you'd have confronted that guy before I could have even gotten a word in." "That was the old me," Deokman answers wearily. They share the chicken...but Deokman is crying silently.
We don't leave the odd dude for long. He's followed the villagers to Yangji, the plague-quarantined village we saw earlier. He looks at the latest group of dead, lying there on the ground, and sighs. And he walks over to a man who's trying to treat some of the sick villagers. "Master, I've brought the herbs." The man promptly smacks him with a broom, accusing him of eating meat on the sly; he must have smelled it. But look who it is--it's MUNNO! How about that; the guy shows up again after all. Been quite a while. He looks over the herbs and is angry that there's no wild ginger. "These treat the symptoms but they can't cure. What do you suggest we do for these people?" Demand for ginger is great right now, the younger man explains; "It's hard to come by." But Munno wants none of that. "Come back tomorrow and bring it," he demands. Gotta say, he's not treating the guy very well at all. Wonder why.
Yushin reminisces about Deokman's early days as a Hwarang. I admired your persistence, he tells her in so many words. "Can't I have the old Deokman back?" (Um, weren't you the one who told her that "the old you" is gone? Smart pills wore off, I guess.) "No bitterness, no hate or sadness." I wish I could, she answers. But she has so much burdening her. "All I can think about is getting revenge on Mishil. And how the king hurt me. And how the princess suffers. And what I've put you through. The only solution I can see," she adds, "is for me to disappear."
Morning: Seohyeon has led his men to a pair of two small buildings out in the wilderness. This must be the place Yushin was talking about. Seohyeon's instructions: "You are to apprehend and detain Deokman." They'll be here soon, he says, and then "Yushin will leave for a while" (Huh? Why?) and that's when we snatch her. "And take him to Usan Island." There's quite a twist right there. "If you can't, kill him and secure the body." Yikes--now we know where Seohyeon stands, don't we. "Yushin can't know about this," he instructs; act only when Deokman is alone. (As though Yushin won't realize what happened? Come on...a rare misfire from Seohyeon.)
A bit later, Seohyeon goes inside one of the buildings and Yushin is there waiting for him. Yushin explains that the princess ordered him to take Deokman out to this area--and to find Munno. "He was seen in this area recently," Yushin adds. (We never heard this order.) Seohyeon tells him there's an empty lodge nearby where he can stay while he searches, and that a local magistrate he knows might be able to offer them some protection. "I hate the thought of the two of you out here alone." Take Deokman there now, he says, and come right back. (There's the Yushin-leaving part.) Yushin nods...and then asks his father, Did you come here alone? Not missing a beat, Seohyeon says he did, with only his steward. "I could tell you wanted to keep this a secret."
Out in the woods, the spy opens a box containing the carrier pigeon that Seolwon gave him. He attaches a note to its leg and sends it home.
Yushin and Deokman arrive at the empty lodge. Little more than a hut, really. Yushin tells Deokman to go in and get some rest while he gets some supplies and tries to find that local magistrate. Deokman nods meekly and heads in. But not before he cautions her: "Don't get any other ideas." He's barely left the front yard when two of Seohyeon's men come sneaking around the side. One is the spy. Deokman goes inside, clears away a few cobwebs and sits down.
The pigeon lands on Seolwon's arm. Note received. He goes in and tells Mishil. "Geumhak Village, in Iseo." Mishil is enthusiastic; tells Seolwon to handle this himself. And reminds him, "We need her alive."
The rest of Seohyeon's men cautiously approach the lodge. But now someone is sneaking up next to them. It's the weird guy from last night! Startles the heck out of them, and with a goofy look on his face asks them what they're doing. They wave him off with a sword-blade; he laughs a little and wishes them luck, and saunters off. But wait--the basket that's slung over his shoulder--Yushin's headband is sticking out of it. That gets the men's attention big-time. The recognize it as Yushin's. Where did you get that? "Swapped it for a drumstick." They don't believe it--granted, it's a pretty strange explanation--and when he tries to get it back, they knock him to the ground. And then start kicking him. Pretty severely--totally uncalled for. But then the other two men show up. One of them must be the group's leader, because he admonishes them to remember their orders. So they head towards the lodge. The weird guy is left to pick up the remnants of his basket and its contents...including some chicken wrapped in a white cloth that got all broken up and crumbled. "Now they did it," he mutters, and walks after them.
"I had to do it to save you." Seohyeon has come clean to his son. Yushin is furious and immediately heads for the door...but Seohyeon actually pulls his sword. It's for our family's own good, he says angrily. Which doesn't sway Yushin one bit. "Kill me. Let me go or kill me, one or the other." You can't stop this, Seohyeon answers; "It's over." But Yushin pushes him aside and leaves.
"Deokman, don't give us any trouble." She's come outside and the men have surrounded her.
Seolwon, Bojong, Seokpum and two soldiers gallop towards Geumhak....
Deokman brandishes her sword! Ugh, this again? So all of the men promptly brandish theirs. "We've been ordered to kill you if we have to." Trembling a little, Deokman thinks, looks around...and asks, "By who?" Okay, might as well get some answers if you can't do anything else. "The king? Seohyeon?" But they only tell her, "Let's go." She won't--she's going to go down swinging. She steadies herself, grabs her sword tightly with both hands...and then at the last moment, from off to the side..."Hey, you guys. Get over here." Oh no, not the weird guy again! Standing there on a patch of slightly higher ground. Okay, so he's angry about his chicken; what does he think he's going to do about it, unarmed and alone? (Maybe make chicken salad?) Deokman is utterly dumbfounded; compared to him she's looking like a genius here. So the group leader nods to one of his men to take care of the guy. (The same group leader who had just five minutes earlier reminded the men not to stray from their mission! Ugh.) The man goes charging up the ground...and the weird guy does a running full forward flip, knocks the man over, grabs his sword and kills him, in one fell swoop. (Okay, clearly Munno taught him that.) Well, now he's got a sword, but still...He's not finished, though. With a creepy smile on his face he runs forward and leaps into the group and knocks several of them to the ground in a moment of chaos. They compose themselves and half-surround him, his back to the lodge, but he just smiles at them and says, "Time for you to die." Deokman stands there, sword still poised, probably taking her own turn now to fry some neurons at all this. And we have to join her...because a caption tells us just who this nut is. His name is Bidam. He's the son of Mishil and King Jinji. That poor little infant who Mishil left on the floor of the palace in Episode 2, abandoning him because he no longer aided her quest to become queen. Never referred to or even thought about by anybody since then. And now here he is. Well I'll Bidammed.
Seori walks into a meeting of Mishil's cabal. She's looking for Chilsuk--and they think he's with her. Uh-oh; lost him. Seolwon says he'll go search, but he can't even stand up before Chilsuk's arrival is announced. That was convenient...Yes, Chilsuk is still concerned about Sohwa, but he's there to tell Mishil that he can see now, and not just that, to drop the bomb about WHAT he saw. "I saw...the lost twin." None of them can even react to this, it's such an out-of-nowhere piece of news. "I saw the lost twin. In the palace." Pretty soon it sinks in, though, and now they're all sitting there speechless, looking completely blown away.
Imjong and Alcheon report back to Eulje and Yongchun. They're sorry to come back empty-handed, but they do tell Eulje that Deokman had been with Cheonmyeong and he finds that information useful. But Alcheon, as he did in Episode 18, wants Eulje to tell him what this is all about. "Didn't I explain it's for the good of Shilla?" is Eulje's rather dismissive response. It's not good enough, but Yongchun summarily dismisses the two and they have to leave. Eulje and Yongchun still haven't put all of the pieces together, wondering how Deokman got the dagger that the king gave to the lost twin.
"Alive? The lost twin is alive!?" Chilsuk explains to Mishil, "She was dressed as a man, wearing a Hwarang uniform, but it was her." And yes, he tells them, I saw the sandstorm sweep her away, "but apparently it swept her here." Sejong offers some sensible caution: "It's been so long; maybe it wasn't her." But Chilsuk said he'd recognize the facial features anywhere: "It was Deokman." Bomb number two! They're all staggered by this, especially Mishil: "Deokman--did you say Deokman? Deokman the trainee?" They're all staring off into space, neurons overloading...but Mishil, she's putting pieces together. A couple of brief flashbacks...to Episode 8, a young Deokman boldly asking her about Munno...then to Episode 15, when she learns that Deokman can speak Latin...For whatever reason, those two memories seal it. "It's her."
A bit later: They're still all sitting there. It took the rest of them a while, but now it's sunk in. Does the king know? Seolwon doubts it--if he did, why would Eulje be so doggedly investigating all of this? Whatever-- now they need to capture Deokman and do it quickly. But Chilsuk has to tell them she's long gone. Okay, Mishil, what to do now? "Keep quiet, all of you. I need time to think." Yes you do. Not even Mishil can scheme her way through this one so quickly.
Nighttime: Maya and Cheonmyeong meet outside the Hall of Records and are let in. Down in the basement storehouse, they look for Sohwa. Not there! But Eulje is there. "Looking for Sohwa?" Boldly, probably stepping well over the line, he confronts them. "My queen, my princess--what are you hiding from me?" I'm trying to protect the king from Mishil and honor Jinheung's legacy, he reminds them, as I always have. So you mustn't keep secrets from me. Okay, but what did he do with Sohwa and why risk her being spotted by moving her? What's the point?
Concurrently: We're out in the countryside somewhere. Yushin and Deokman have arrived at a small village. An older woman comes outside of one of the houses and greets Yushin warmly. Yushin, we learn, has been taking care of this woman. It's Shiyeol's mother! This is quite a surprise. Yushin hands her a wrapped-up note and asks her to do something he says is difficult: give the note to Goksaheun and Daepung--two of the other DFers who were friends with Shiyeol (and the two who accompanied Deokman on the aborted trip to Mount Jungak (she drugged them, remember)). "You have to place this in their hands. No one else's." She says she's happy to do it.
Well look who's keeping secrets. Eulje has taken the still-dazed Sohwa to that room where he's been holding Jukbang and Godo. Hypocrite. He and Yongchun are questioning the two Hwarang, describing Jinheung's dagger to them. "You've really never seen it?" No, they haven't, or at least Jukbang hasn't. Godo whispers to him that he thinks Deokman has something like that...But look at this: hearing the dagger's description, Sohwa turns and focuses her gaze at Yongchun, looking almost lucid. Eulje asks the pair, "How did you meet Deokman?" They start to explain, but now he's much more interested in seeing Sohwa's growing agitation at hearing that name. Godo explains about Deokman telling them that "Deokman had lost her mom or something, someplace far away"--Sohwa's more and more agitated--"and came to Shilla to find Munno"--and she's almost crying and screaming. Eulje walks over to her and kneels beside her. "Do you know this Deokman?" A tense silence..."Could Deokman be...the baby you had with you?" Yongchun reminds him that Deokman is a boy Hwarang. Is he? Back to Jukbang and Godo: "Is this Deokman a girl?" Godo laughs it off, but Eulje yells at them and scares Jukbang into spilling it. Yongchun and Godo dead-heat the who's-more-surprised contest, while Sohwa sits there in obvious anguish with tears streaming down her face.
"You're sure it's Shiyeol's mom?" One of the royal attendants has come to Goksaheun and Daepung to let them know that they have a visitor. Weird news...but they go out front, and sure enough, there she is. They greet her warmly, and she discreetly slips them the note and tells them it's from Yushin. And scurries away before anyone spots her. Well done, lady. They open up the note and read it. Keeping remarkably calm, considering what the note must say and how unexpected all of this is, they split up and head in separate directions. As they leave, one of Imjong's Hwarang spots them....and follows Goksaheun as he heads to Cheonmyeong's home. "I have a message from Yushin," Goksaheun tells the guard. "Please call the princess's maid Chosun." Yushin's name convinces the guard to go inside and fetch Chosun (nice to finally have her name after all this time). Meanwhile, outside, Eulje and Imjong have shown up and insist--at the point of Imjong's sword--that Goksaheun follow them. So they escort the DFer away...but apparently they rounded the wrong corner because Cheonmyeong is coming right at them! Oops. "He has something for me from Yushin," she says angrily; "How dare you detain him!" But Eulje won't release him. "You can't keep secrets from me," Eulje tells her again. "You swore you wouldn't." Cheonmyeong is silent (Why doesn't she accuse him of the same thing?), so Eulje turns to Goksaheun and says, "You can deliver your message here." Okay, fine...but Goksaheun is hesitant for some reason. "Speak up!", Eulje barks. Looking terribly uncomfortable, Goksaheun offers..."It's only...He said that Lord Eulje is trying to harm Deokman...and would the princess please look into it." Uh-oh...busss-ted. The princess glares at Eulje. "Is that so?"
Now the two of them are in her home and she's reading him the riot act. Eulje is unrepentant, but she keeps at him: "This is MY business. And my mother's. And the king's. Who do you think you are, handling this without the king?" Eulje fires back, "What about you, princess? Have you told the king everything?" Well played, old man. He shouts, "Have you told him that Deokman is the lost twin?" And if there's an All-Time Grand Champion of Bad Timing award, Eulje wins it by a landslide, because who happens to be walking in unannounced as he shouts it but the king and queen. Jinpyeong's eyeballs are just about popping out and he's screaming mad. "What did you say?!?" Nobody wants to answer or even look at him.
Back to Mishil's cabal: Seolwon has solid information that Sohwa is being held at the Department of Royal Affairs. (Huh? What information? How does he know?) "Go get her," Mishil says, unconcerned about the use of royal troops within the palace itself. "Do whatever it takes to get her." This could get ugly. She also wants all of Deokman's "known associates" tailed, and all of her allies around the country alerted to keep watch for Deokman. "We've GOT to find Deokman," she says, in that don't-mess-with-me voice we hear on rare occasions. "Is that clear?" Yeah, it's clear. And more quietly adds, "That's when our real work will begin...." Uh-oh, what's she cooked up now? Nobody has the guts to even ask.
Now it's the king's turn to fry some neurons. "Deokman is...could it be?" Same stunned glaze in his eyes that everybody else has been trying out lately. Queen, princess and Eulje all standing there silently. "How could this happen?" (Well you did send her away in the hope that she'd at least stay alive...) But now he's flashing back...First to the great scene in Episode 8 when he first meets a scraggly Deokman in Manno County, as she confronts Bojong and Mishil...Then to the beginning of Episode 13, after Deokman was tortured for the attempt on Seohyeon's life that she wasn't responsible for...He seems a little calmer now, but still stunned.
Yushin and Deokman are out in the wilderness somewhere, still with their horse. Deokman is sullen and brooding, still believing that the king wanted her dead. But Yushin assures her otherwise: "The king doesn't know." She seems to trust what he tells her, and she reacts like this is truthful. He adds, "Eulje's doing this out of misguided loyalty, I think." (Hey, score one for the rock-smacker. Would not have seen that insight coming from him.) We're going to wait this out, he says, and trust the queen and princess. At the moment the problem is they're out there alone with no supplies, but "I've sent word to my father for help." Hmmm...is that where Daepung headed off to when Goksaheun went to see the princess?
Yes, it is. Daepung is ushered in to see Seohyeon and Manmyeong, and relays the message: Yushin had to leave abruptly and has no supplies, and asks his father to meet him "at the country inn where we went hunting when I was eight years old." (Score another one for Yushin for not spilling the specific location. Somebody took his smart pills today.) Seohyeon doesn't know what this is about, and neither does Daepung. But now who's at the front door--Eulje.
Good heavens, look at all the dead bodies. What's going on? Yushin and Deokman have come to a village where it looks like some sort of plague has broken out. This is Yangji village, and yes, we learn from a villager that it's been quarantined. Lots of big yellow jars standing around; this is how they're burying the dead, or at least storing them to keep from being overwhelmed. Yushin asks about Geumhak village and is assured that it's okay so far. Geumhak is where he's taking Deokman, for whatever reason.
Eulje tells the whole story to Seohyeon, and adds, "No doubt he's contacted you for supplies." Seohyeon stares at him, completely still, betraying nothing. So Eulje presses: "This endangers the royal house. Yushin's in over his head." So what do you want?, Seohyeon calmly asks. Quite an answer: "Return Yushin to the capital. And kill Deokman." Seohyeon doesn't like it. But Eulje has a carrot to offer: He'll arrange for a marriage between the princess and Yushin. "We need an heir, after all. I'm sure the king and princess will agree. But to do that--" Seohyeon cuts him off--"you need Deokman's head." Eulje presses: "What's one little head compared to a kingdom?" Like it or not, from what we know about Seohyeon, you know he at least is going to acknowledge the logic of it.
Now Eulje is with the king, telling him he expects to hear from Seohyeon soon. Jinpyeong looks at him suspiciously. "Tell me...what were your instructions?" Hmmm, will Eulje fess up? Nope! "To place Deokman on a boat to China." A long, uncomfortable silence as Jinpyeong glares at him (and we wonder if the king deduces that Eulje would never order that, because if Deokman came back once already...). "Sire, trust that what I do, I do out of loyalty." Finally the king stops staring at him. "I know," he says. "Leave me." "I do trust you," he mutters softly to himself after Eulje leaves. "In your loyalty, at least." He starts to cry, and his surprised attendant asks him why. "Eulje..." he answers, "plans to kill Deokman." And adds, "I should have killed her myself when she was born, painlessly and quickly." Nah, you're better than that. "How can I make up for what I've done? She has every right to hate me."
Yikes, here comes an ugly standoff. Seolwon and some of the cabal, along with a squad of soldiers, are facing off against Yongchun and some guards outside the Hall of Royal Affairs. Seolwon smugly warns Yongchun of the consequences if he causes blood to be shed--like it would be his fault. But it's enough to make Yongchun yield. Really? Seolwon and his team head into the building, and walk right into the room where Jukbang, Godo and Sohwa are being held. "Get her out of here," Seolwon orders, and his Hwarang comply. And they decide to take Jukbang and Godo too, just in case they might know something useful. But as the three are hauled outside the building, Eulje shows up, with Imjong and several of his Hwarang. Now another standoff. "You dare deploy troops in my department? Answer me!" But Seolwon demands to know who this woman is they've found in the building and why he's holding her. Eulje, incredibly, says nothing. But Seolwon has one: "We have reason to believe she's a Baekje spy." That old excuse again. "An investigation will reveal the truth," he says with a smirk on his face. And just like that, he leads his team away. Sohwa is unceremoniously pushed into a small gama and everyone heads off.
Seolwon reports the good news back to Mishil. She isn't surprised, simply because Eulje had no legal right to stop it from happening. (What?! So that's why Eulje didn't resist? He took Sohwa out of a guarded royal storehouse and put her in his own building where she had no legal protection and Seolwon could just go in and take her? This supposedly sage, wise high official? UGH! Good grief.) Sohwa and Jukbang and Godo, we learn, have been taken to the shrine where Wolchun presently is.
Wolchun receives the party calmly. The three captives are put into a room and the door is locked. Now what? Jukbang starts talking to Sohwa. First he tries to reassure her, not very convincingly, and then just out of innocent curiosity asks, "Are you by any chance Deokman's mother?" She doesn't say anything, but she perks up and calms down. Which looks like yes to Jukbang. "It's a pleasure," he says kindly...and then presses her a bit: "So tell me..what's the deal between the king and Deokman?" Come on, like she's gonna answer that? "Don't cry, just trust us and tell us what's what so we can get out of here. We'll find Deokman for you, so snap out of it, all right?" She's crying and anguished again, but they try to comfort her and get her to tell them something, anything....
Who's this villager? Walking around outside acting almost drunk. But then he goes in to see Seolwon, showing no impairment, and tells him, "We're to meet in the forest a few miles outside the capital, but they didn't say where we're going." Seolwon tells Bojong to give the man a carrier pigeon and tells the man to take it with him. Guessing this is some sort of spy who's keeping tabs on Seohyeon.
Then Seolwon reports this all to Mishil. "We can't have any mistakes," Mishil tells him. Seolwon explains that the man "has been with Seohyeon's retinue since they came to the capital." Yep, a plant. "He's reliable."
Nighttime, out in the countryside: Seohyeon has gathered about a dozen men together. They don't look like soldiers; they're probably Gayans he can trust. The spy is among them. He leads them off somewhere....
"We'll camp here tonight." Yushin and Deokman are out in the woods somewhere and Yushin has found a suitably safe spot to rest. A real good spot, actually, a sort of very short tunnel through the corner of a rocky hill. Two ready exits. Deokman's been thinking, and doesn't see things turning out well for her. "Any way I look at it..." but Yushin cuts her off. "Don't think too much. Just follow orders, same as always." They're hungry and need to forage for some food. Suddenly, though, they hear someone calling, close enough that they snap to their feet. But now what's this? Someone is walking very near them. Someone who was in a dark part of the same sheltered place. Slowly he steps forward out of the darkness, and soon enough we see his face. Who the heck is this guy? A disheveled-looking young man, dressed in plain blue clothes, groggily wandering forth like he just woke up. He looks around, spots Yushin and Deokman staring at him intently...and winks! And then just walks right along, like seeing two Hwarang standing there in the middle of the night is nothing unusual. He walks a little ways and sits down, and three villagers are there waiting for him. One of them must have been the person calling out. They've brought him some plants and herbs--but not the ginger he was hoping for. "My master's gonna be mad." And some chicken; that's received more enthusiastically. "My master's too hard on me," he complains, as he eats some of the chicken. How much weirder is this going to get? Yushin finally steps forward and asks...not for an explanation, but for some of the chicken. We'll pay you for it tomorrow, he promises. Not a real nice answer: "I hate sharing." He snarkily throws a chicken bone in Yushin's direction and starts to walk away...but then whirls and throws a big hunk of chicken at Yushin in an instant--VERY quickly, like he thinks he's some sort of martial artist. Yushin manages to catch it; it was going to hit Deokman. In exchange for some chicken, the man wants to keep Yushin's Hwarang headband until he gets his money. Yushin reluctantly agrees, tosses the man his headband, and tells him to come back tomorrow afternoon for his money. The man smiles and walks away with the villagers, admiring the fancy headband he's holding. That was one odd dude right there.
"What a pain that guy was," Yushin grumbles. "I might have to slap him around tomorrow." (Hey, funny!) He and Deokman head back to the shelter. "Back in the day," he observes ironically, "you'd have confronted that guy before I could have even gotten a word in." "That was the old me," Deokman answers wearily. They share the chicken...but Deokman is crying silently.
We don't leave the odd dude for long. He's followed the villagers to Yangji, the plague-quarantined village we saw earlier. He looks at the latest group of dead, lying there on the ground, and sighs. And he walks over to a man who's trying to treat some of the sick villagers. "Master, I've brought the herbs." The man promptly smacks him with a broom, accusing him of eating meat on the sly; he must have smelled it. But look who it is--it's MUNNO! How about that; the guy shows up again after all. Been quite a while. He looks over the herbs and is angry that there's no wild ginger. "These treat the symptoms but they can't cure. What do you suggest we do for these people?" Demand for ginger is great right now, the younger man explains; "It's hard to come by." But Munno wants none of that. "Come back tomorrow and bring it," he demands. Gotta say, he's not treating the guy very well at all. Wonder why.
Yushin reminisces about Deokman's early days as a Hwarang. I admired your persistence, he tells her in so many words. "Can't I have the old Deokman back?" (Um, weren't you the one who told her that "the old you" is gone? Smart pills wore off, I guess.) "No bitterness, no hate or sadness." I wish I could, she answers. But she has so much burdening her. "All I can think about is getting revenge on Mishil. And how the king hurt me. And how the princess suffers. And what I've put you through. The only solution I can see," she adds, "is for me to disappear."
Morning: Seohyeon has led his men to a pair of two small buildings out in the wilderness. This must be the place Yushin was talking about. Seohyeon's instructions: "You are to apprehend and detain Deokman." They'll be here soon, he says, and then "Yushin will leave for a while" (Huh? Why?) and that's when we snatch her. "And take him to Usan Island." There's quite a twist right there. "If you can't, kill him and secure the body." Yikes--now we know where Seohyeon stands, don't we. "Yushin can't know about this," he instructs; act only when Deokman is alone. (As though Yushin won't realize what happened? Come on...a rare misfire from Seohyeon.)
A bit later, Seohyeon goes inside one of the buildings and Yushin is there waiting for him. Yushin explains that the princess ordered him to take Deokman out to this area--and to find Munno. "He was seen in this area recently," Yushin adds. (We never heard this order.) Seohyeon tells him there's an empty lodge nearby where he can stay while he searches, and that a local magistrate he knows might be able to offer them some protection. "I hate the thought of the two of you out here alone." Take Deokman there now, he says, and come right back. (There's the Yushin-leaving part.) Yushin nods...and then asks his father, Did you come here alone? Not missing a beat, Seohyeon says he did, with only his steward. "I could tell you wanted to keep this a secret."
Out in the woods, the spy opens a box containing the carrier pigeon that Seolwon gave him. He attaches a note to its leg and sends it home.
Yushin and Deokman arrive at the empty lodge. Little more than a hut, really. Yushin tells Deokman to go in and get some rest while he gets some supplies and tries to find that local magistrate. Deokman nods meekly and heads in. But not before he cautions her: "Don't get any other ideas." He's barely left the front yard when two of Seohyeon's men come sneaking around the side. One is the spy. Deokman goes inside, clears away a few cobwebs and sits down.
The pigeon lands on Seolwon's arm. Note received. He goes in and tells Mishil. "Geumhak Village, in Iseo." Mishil is enthusiastic; tells Seolwon to handle this himself. And reminds him, "We need her alive."
The rest of Seohyeon's men cautiously approach the lodge. But now someone is sneaking up next to them. It's the weird guy from last night! Startles the heck out of them, and with a goofy look on his face asks them what they're doing. They wave him off with a sword-blade; he laughs a little and wishes them luck, and saunters off. But wait--the basket that's slung over his shoulder--Yushin's headband is sticking out of it. That gets the men's attention big-time. The recognize it as Yushin's. Where did you get that? "Swapped it for a drumstick." They don't believe it--granted, it's a pretty strange explanation--and when he tries to get it back, they knock him to the ground. And then start kicking him. Pretty severely--totally uncalled for. But then the other two men show up. One of them must be the group's leader, because he admonishes them to remember their orders. So they head towards the lodge. The weird guy is left to pick up the remnants of his basket and its contents...including some chicken wrapped in a white cloth that got all broken up and crumbled. "Now they did it," he mutters, and walks after them.
"I had to do it to save you." Seohyeon has come clean to his son. Yushin is furious and immediately heads for the door...but Seohyeon actually pulls his sword. It's for our family's own good, he says angrily. Which doesn't sway Yushin one bit. "Kill me. Let me go or kill me, one or the other." You can't stop this, Seohyeon answers; "It's over." But Yushin pushes him aside and leaves.
"Deokman, don't give us any trouble." She's come outside and the men have surrounded her.
Seolwon, Bojong, Seokpum and two soldiers gallop towards Geumhak....
Deokman brandishes her sword! Ugh, this again? So all of the men promptly brandish theirs. "We've been ordered to kill you if we have to." Trembling a little, Deokman thinks, looks around...and asks, "By who?" Okay, might as well get some answers if you can't do anything else. "The king? Seohyeon?" But they only tell her, "Let's go." She won't--she's going to go down swinging. She steadies herself, grabs her sword tightly with both hands...and then at the last moment, from off to the side..."Hey, you guys. Get over here." Oh no, not the weird guy again! Standing there on a patch of slightly higher ground. Okay, so he's angry about his chicken; what does he think he's going to do about it, unarmed and alone? (Maybe make chicken salad?) Deokman is utterly dumbfounded; compared to him she's looking like a genius here. So the group leader nods to one of his men to take care of the guy. (The same group leader who had just five minutes earlier reminded the men not to stray from their mission! Ugh.) The man goes charging up the ground...and the weird guy does a running full forward flip, knocks the man over, grabs his sword and kills him, in one fell swoop. (Okay, clearly Munno taught him that.) Well, now he's got a sword, but still...He's not finished, though. With a creepy smile on his face he runs forward and leaps into the group and knocks several of them to the ground in a moment of chaos. They compose themselves and half-surround him, his back to the lodge, but he just smiles at them and says, "Time for you to die." Deokman stands there, sword still poised, probably taking her own turn now to fry some neurons at all this. And we have to join her...because a caption tells us just who this nut is. His name is Bidam. He's the son of Mishil and King Jinji. That poor little infant who Mishil left on the floor of the palace in Episode 2, abandoning him because he no longer aided her quest to become queen. Never referred to or even thought about by anybody since then. And now here he is. Well I'll Bidammed.