Today’s episode is sponsored by extra strength Kleenex™ tissues!
When there’s lots of crying to be done, we’re here for you.
(Kleenex™ is a registered trademark of the Kimberly Clark Corporation)
We'll get to that...Very nice opening for once. Bangwon was tired, nervous, glad to see his family, mentally worn down. No big dramatic statement to start the episode; just showing a real human being struggling with the weight of his world. Even though he’s doing all of his for purely selfish reasons, you almost felt for him here. A little.
Bangwon: “The day is quite long.” Spoken on the day we all lose an hour! Had to laugh.
Lee Seokbeon has been a scary guy throughout all this. A real cold-blooded mob-enforcer type. But the little exhale of relief after Banggwa showed up and left without incident, that was a nice touch.
(click for full size) A perfect image, Jiran so utterly downcast and not a word spoken. They’d have done well to leave it at this, but no, Jiran had to fall to the ground screaming and crying and begging for his own death. Why just him and not any of LSG’s other allies? They pushed this too far.
“He might look gentle on the outside, but he is very strong-willed...someone like him must disappear.” Have to give credit, the writers continue to do good job of making complete and interesting characters out of the princes. You don’t see a lot of historicals trying to develop characters this much and it’s really working well.
So they turned princess into a monk. This was the point where the crying started to get to be a little much. And what about the other daughters? In the family scene in Ep8 we saw that LSG and Lady Kang had three daughters. What’s happening with the other two—are their lives at risk too? An obvious question that should have been addressed.
Wow they really scalped her. No skull caps there. Hope they didn’t need any retakes!
And now more wailing and crying from LSG. We’re more than halfway through the episode and still people are wailing and crying...
...but the abrupt cut to the laughter and partying at Bangwon’s house, that sure was effective.
“I think it is time for us to name our children.” And they still won’t do it now? Is that for real? Maybe so, it just was surprising.
“Are you well?” The silence as LSG looks at the new crown prince for the first time, that was more effective than all of the banging drums the producers could have hired. And then he takes the seal and drops it Banggwa’s lap. It wasn’t juiced up or overdone--the shock of it spoke for itself. “If you give up the throne, I will take my own life one day. The choice is yours: will you save me or save Bangwon? Make your choice.” Poor Banggwa—he’s only doing this for his father’s sake and now look at the mess he’s in. Truly, no good deed goes unpunished.
Eunuch Kim. “You could hand it over quietly. Why did you bring so many people?” That was a great scene. That eunuch has been kind of a load at times but he was perfect here. Well done.
“Do you think your petty filial piety will help you maintain your position?” A solid ending for once. “You do not have a chance. Stop this and leave the palace at once.” Yes it was rather Godfather-ish but based on these versions of the princes that have been presented to us, it made sense and wasn’t overdone. Too much crying in this one but for the second episode in a row the producers were more restrained and didn’t try to over-juice everything. Maybe they’re learned from their mistakes? Fingers crossed....