This one wasn’t quite the hot steaming mess that 27 was, thank goodness. And there are a few things to give credit for, so let’s start with that.
The big one being, the writers actually did stick to the general concept of how the rebels were dealt with, liquor them up and chop them up. We’ll talk about how they portrayed it, but at least it wasn’t turned into some sort of fantasy final battle or whatever else. And they also came up with a plausible story for getting all of those troops out of the way to set up the banquet scene in the first place. A little confusing but it made sense. (Of course it was only necessary because of the fiction that the writers have trapped themselves in, but it could have been a lot worse.)
Also credit for the letter that Hyeonjong wrote to Lady Kim. “It has been a long time since my feelings for you started to grow, but I could not abandon the empress.” Finally we got something to explain his reluctance with her. The glimpse we saw of how Hyeonjong and Wonjeong were so close as children, they should have given us that a long time ago; it would have helped justify everything that’s happened since. But whatever, they did finally address this.
The info about Hyeonjong's mom, that also was something I'd wish we had gotten sooner. It does add some context and helps us understand him more. I wonder if the previous writers had planned to introduce it and it got left laying around once the current nut job took over.
We also got The Black Assassin getting back to talking about his sons again and not just being a raving lunatic for no apparent reason. And even better, we got this:
(click for full size) There it is, the family starting to put the pieces together. Didn’t get as far as I hoped, as in We’ll all be murdered by mobs, but getting a rational voice from the family, this was badly needed.
And since we’re passing out credit, Eunuch Yang protecting the imperial seal with his life, there’s your Employee of the Month right there. I’ve enjoyed how they’ve continually given us glimpses of eunuchs holding that thing so tightly and keeping it close to Hyeonjong.
But now we turn to the lukewarm semi-steaming mess that we did get:
--Neither Choi Jil nor The Black Assassin ever considered that leaving Kim Hoon behind in the capital might not be the best idea? Really? That never occurred to either of them? Oh good grief.
--How did Ji Chaemoon find out so quickly about the plot to kill the traitors? He’s out there in the middle of nowhere, and everyone has been sworn to secrecy!
(click for full size) --Yeah dude, it doesn’t make any sense to me either. What is Lady Kim doing wandering around everywhere on her own? She knows that wanted posters were circulated to find her, and plenty of people wouldn’t mind killing her. And she disregarded Ji Chaemoon’s explicit instructions. Then she manages to get into the central part of Seogyeong’s government buildings where the emperor is being heavily guarded. How? More evidence that the writers think we’re idiots. And now it looks like she’s going to get credit for somebody else’s banquet idea. It makes no sense to have her in the middle of this.
(click for full size) ---This right here! Of course he wouldn’t. The very idea of it is laughable. Hyeonjong never should have been brought into the assassination story. The writers did it so he could stand there in the banquet hall and give that silly, contrived melodramatic speech. And also to set up the big ending...more on that in a minute...
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--Can you completely strangle someone to death in 18 seconds? And stop their heart? Especially if you’re middle-aged and not in the best shape? Really? That was awful. Take out a sword and kill him if you’re going to kill him.
So the writers made more of an effort in this one to patch some holes in the story, but left some new messes. And what disappointed me the most—there are only four episodes left and we still haven’t put and end to the wildly over-fictionalized rebellion fiction. The huge story of Gamchan’s triumph in one of the great battles in the nation’s history, with the actor who’s supposed to be front-and-center by this point, it’s been shoved aside by the head writer’s ego. Wow.
p.s. So why don’t we go ahead and spoil the start of 29. We saw The Black Assassin grab a bow and what appeared to be exactly three arrows that were sitting in his room. He’s going to run into the banquet hall and everything will come to a dramatic freeze as he points an arrow at Hyeonjong. Choi Jil will argue with him—You can’t kill him, I need him alive!—and he’ll kill Choi Jil. He’ll reload and then just as he fires the lethal arrow at Hyeonjong, Kim Hoon jumps in the path, takes the arrow and dies a hero’s death, begging his emperor for forgiveness. Kim doesn’t survive this and there’s no other plausible way to get rid of him. Not sure about the third arrow…Maybe Kim takes it first, just to make his sacrifice more dramatic? Maybe Ji Chaemoon takes a non-lethal one for the team? Maybe we only get two arrows? That part is tougher to call…but whatever, let’s hope they get it over with and don’t drag it out.