Did I miss good fight?

[greatcait]

I was out of town this weekend but taped Friday & Saturday. I saw that JG and the police guy were running from some thugs in the trailer for Sat. Well, I didn't see it in the Sat. episode but it appeared as a flashback or was it another trailer bit?. They chopped off something at the beginning as well. Why did lady Han say she knew why they lost? I figured something about the soup, but what? (I don't believe there is any other drama out there where the food is such a great main character that you NEED to know what happened to it!)

[RichardG]

The FIGHT is still in comimg attractions so it did not happen yet. She is still out with the Queen's lady sick.

For the food contest, it was supposed to be the BONES used as JG went out of her way for the best. It was that that got her kicked out as TRYING TO impress and that is what causes problems IN the palace. She bypassed her ABILITIES by "trying".

Coming atractions looks like she will be back in kitchen. I'm feeling sorry for the other gril now (BEING PUSHED) trying to find out what JG learns and how.

This episode should have been the intro to the MEDICINE. Accupuncture etc all working. All above what her present level is to entail and what the women challenge her with as OLD culture and her from whatever hidden parents. They did cover that but only with the "royal guard".

[eyego]

Yeah Greatcait, that fight scene was deleted from the Saturday night show. It was shown on the replay on Sunday morning. Col. Min walked Jang-Geum to the market place. He wanted to talk to his men that were investigating missing ginseng, and she needed to buy some ingredients for the doctor taking care of the Queen's nursemaid. On the way back, some thugs attacked them. Col. Min was able to fight them off, although they had to run back to the temple and hide for a while. The thugs looked around the temple but they were hiding in a supply hut. Then it cut to where they were sharing a meal in the one worker's room.

[newcomer]

i was working on saturday night and sunday morning. i was only recently introduced to the show, but already love it. is there anyone who might summarize sat/sun's episode for me so that i can be caught up for next friday?? thanks a ton

[livesfreely]

I'm giving a link to a soompi forum that has the episode descriptions. THERE ARE ALSO SPOILERS ON THIS THREAD SO ...READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. This particular page describes what happend in episode 15 & 16.

soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=114290&st=80

[newcomer]

thanks for the link - it's just what i was looking for.
i was trying to piece things together ... so this is helpful

[RichardG]

I think this being "foreign" to me keeps my cools vs getting mad now they cut the fight but it WAS in there.

I love the soaps but this cutting encourages "the standard" of the verbal inadequacies you get from some Korean people as not complete English/sentences etc. That is bad! VERY BAD. Shall I say a bad public projection?

[Walter]

Another bit on Sunday morning that might have been cut from the Sat. evening episode- while in the marketplace the Colonel met with his men, who said they found out what was happening to the missing ginsing- Choi Pan Sul (older brother of Madam Choi) was behind the thefts. They asked what they should do, he told them all they came for was to find out, and they'd found out, so they could go back to the palace.

Looks like it's building to a big battle between the Choi's and Ok and the Colonel- he's uncovering their corruption, with is directly connected to Jang Guem on many levels -including the poisoning and the murder of her mother, and how she found a way to grow (astragus?) at the herb garden, and in so doing destroyed Choi and Ok's profitible monopoly on that herb.

Jang Guem is in the midst of all of it but doesn't realize it.

[Catalpa]

About the answer to why they lost the competition, I got the impression that Lady Han never said outright the reason why they lost. Later she scolds JG and sends her to the temple. At that time she explains that they lost b/c JG was focusing on winning the competition and relying on her talent rather than remembering what the competition was about and doing things the correct way.

In this instance, the competition was cooking something from ingredients that are usually not used for cooking, b/c the regular people (poor people) often have to do that, and there has been some shortages in teh land. JG was so intent on getting the best quality ingredients (bones to make the beef-flavored soup) that she spent too much time travelling to the bucher's village. B/c of the wasted time, she had to hurry in preparing the borth (using paper to soak up the fats instead of cooking for four days and, in between, allowing it to cook so the fat could be skimmed off like KY did).

Lady Han's point was that, yes, it was an ingenious way to compensate but a) regular poor people would have made due with any bones and not had the privelege of getting the best quality bones, and b) regular people would not have used some ingeneous method to cook the soup faster (perhaps would not have even had special paper available to them, I read between the lines). So Lady Han meant that they lost the competition b/c they had not been in the spirit of what it was about, and b/c JG had rushed the broth.

So, later on at the temple when JG again tries to rush the drying of the special rice for the Queen's lady-in-waiting, it does not turn out right. JG observed the temple's caretaker and how he dries the herbs slowly, taking the necessary time to gather up the herbs if it gets cloudy and putting them back out when the sun returns, etc. And when his rice is done a few days after hers (he dried it in the sun the "proper" way), it is finally the "correct" rice for the lady. So the lady is overjoyed that she can die in peace. Also, the meal that JG and the Colonel are served by the temple's care taker is superb -- better than the king's food -- and the care taker relates to JG that his mother always told him never to serve food that was made in a hurry.

I think at that point, JG finally learns the lesson that, while innovation is good too, some things just take time and sometimes there's no rushing a good thing.

The fight scene was aired on Sunday, along with a scene in which the Colonel finds out the genseng that is missing has been going to Merchant Choi -- who I assume is Lady Choi's uncle that she's always talking about. I sure hope this is foreshadowing for the demise of Lady Choi and the whole scheming bunch!

This may have already been discussed and goes a little beyond the original question. I was unable to access this board as my bookmark led to the main site which is down for maintenance. I finally found my way here!

Cheers,
Colette

[RichardG]

The "bones" seemed to me to be the front for what we should see but JG's background the cause of rejection and her going going going on her own batteries.

Nothing was said to the head womam about WHERE the bones came from otr how they were cooked.

This is the tricky stuff they put in.