Post by ajk on Apr 15, 2008 14:38:41 GMT -5
Just as the envoy begins to drink, Yun Hwe runs in. "Stop!" he shouts. Huang lowers the bowl. Yun has brought buckwheat crepes! Jeon Ilji, who accompanied Yun, explains that cinnamon punch (which is what's in the bowl) will overpower the delicate flavor of the crepes. "It pairs best with warm water," he explains. They take the bowl away. Huang reaches for the crepes, but then turns away and won't eat them. "I don't have the craving for them any more," he tells a frustrated Yun.
Outside of Huang's building, Yun tells escort Han, "I saved your life, lady." She feigns ignorance, but he holds the bowl in front of her. "Why don't you have a taste?" She won't do it, of course. He scolds her and tells her, "You'll find an angel of death waiting for you in the kitchen."
Noh Huibong is in the kitchen, and has Han enters he berates her about serving soured punch to the envoy. And to our surprise, the punch really is soured. He's furious and orders her to go back to the palace. She won't be cooking for the envoy any more.
Still outside, Jeon Ilji asks Yun what's going on (this must be feigning ignorance, too, since he knows about the poison). "Children don't need to know," Yun says. "Ignorance is bliss"...Flashback to late that afternoon. Han drops and breaks a dish. Yun asks her, "You're famous for being cautious and composed, but this is the third dish you broke today. Is something wrong?" She says nothing and leaves, but the girl cooks tell him she's been acting strangely since being called into the queen's hall that morning. Yun sends a secret note to Choongnyeong, asking that the royal attendant be sent over and the buckwheat crepes sent too. Later, spying on Han, Yun sees her put something into the punch, and then when she leaves he dumps a kettle of vinegar into it to make it seem like it's gone bad.
That night, in the darkness of his quarters, Huang Yan stares at the buckwheat crepes...Flashback to a scene of a boy pushing a girl on a swing....
Jeon Ilji jumps over a wall and leaves a secret message in a box that's hidden under a pile of leaves at the base of a tree.
Han tells the Queen that she was unsuccessful. "I think the new chef was tipped off," she says, and an even bigger issue is that the king's attendant got involved. But the queen reasons that the king must not know about her plot, or else there would have been trouble already. No, she decides, someone else must be involved; someone who could call in the attendant without the king knowing about it, and someone who is avoiding me rather than confronting me.
Choongnyeong is with Yi Su, who is trying to get the prince to report the queen's plot to the king. If you don't, he tells the prince, she'll just try to kill the envoy again. She's my mother, Choongnyeong says, which does not move Yi. "You know better than I do that you must think with your head and not with your heart." "I will not report this to the king," the prince answers. "I don't want my mother getting hurt."
Ok Hwan is with Foreman Jeon and Muby. Muby says, We should have gotten rid of Choongnyeong a long time ago; he just keeps disrupting our plans. Jeon counsels Ok, "The mission has failed while the public rage has greatly subsided." So we should turn the rebel troops around, right? No, Ok says, we can't turn them around without accomplishing something. "Find a way to break through this dilemma."
Jang Youngsil tells Wang Ahn that we can't win this battle; our weapons are pathetic. Wang snarls and accuses Jang of having a death wish. “Do you have a better idea? What can you do for us?" "I can make gunpowder," Jang tells him. Later that night (wow, that was fast), soldiers are testing the gunpowder by throwing Molotov cocktail-type bottles, which land and go boom. Wang and Han Younglo agree that "he's a smart kid," and if we use the bombs, our chances of success will double.
In the darkness, Yang is standing by himself. "Are you still having pipe dreams about my daughter?", Han asks. And then, "Let's put your talent to work and win the fight first. Then we'll talk." Yang smiles and shows human emotion, I think for the first time in the series.
Taejong is on horseback, riding along a lake shore by himself while his retinue watches from a distance. His brother's words and his wife's words are echoing through his head. As he returns, Prime Minister Ha asks him why he's out at such an early hour. Thirty years ago, Taejong says to him, you called me "a predestined king." So this is mostly all your fault. I shouldn't have risen to the throne; if I hadn't, "then I'd have been a better father." But Ha replies, "You were our only hope, and you still are." Ha tells the king to send the palace guards to collect the crown prince to be sent to Ming. But Taejong answers only that he's going to release the prince from custody.
Yangnyeong, back in royal clothes, leaves the ancestral shrine.
The queen is with attendant Noh and escort Han. Feigning pleasantry, she tells Noh, "You've become quite a politician. You're working with someone who's trying to steal the throne", yet you're doing a masterful job of covering yourself. Noh recoils in horror, assuring her that it isn't true, but she turns angry and says, "Tell me the truth before I cut off that tongue. Who is trying to send the crown prince away and steal the house?" No, it's not like that, he says, the royal prince was just...and he stops; he spilled the beans by accident. Her eyes widen. "Did you say royal prince!?"
Yangnyeong is before his father. "Give in to me just this once," the king says. "I can't gamble away the nation on a fight we can't win." You can hate me if you want...to which Yangnyeong interrupts, No I don't hate you, and I'll give in. "I'll go to Ming as a hostage. But I'm not giving in to you, father. I'm doing this for my weak and powerless homeland that I would have died to strengthen and protect." (Unavoidable editorial comment: Give it a rest, pal; you got yourself into this mess.)
The next day: Choongnyeong is with his two eunuchs and Yi Su, who are chased out of the room by a surprise visit from the queen. "You look busy," she tells him, and you look excited too. But how could you not be excited "when you're dreaming of rising to the throne." No, mother, he says, you've got this all wrong. "Then why did you advise the king to send the crown prince to Ming" and why did you interfere with my effort to poison the envoy? Do you want power that badly? And then she dishes out the You-are-not-my-son-any-more stuff; my son would never do such things to me. And she storms out, leaving Choongnyeong devastated and in tears.
Minister Hwang is summoned to see the crown prince. "I wanted to thank you," Yangnyeong tells the minister. "They told me it was you. You protected the scholars who mean so much to me." No, Hwang says, "I held them back by force like everyone else." But the prince observes, "They may not have survived the night if it wasn't for you." What a shame, the prince muses, that I couldn't have become king and had a faithful retainer like you serve me. We could have built a strong nation together with the scholars. "Please look after them in my absence, minister Hwang." Both men are almost mournful.
Prince Hyoryeong goes to visit Yangnyeong and tries to tell him "the truth," but Yangnyeong gives his brother the brush-off.
The ministers are meeting, discussing who should become the next crown prince. Hyoryeong is next in line, but is he competent enough for it? Then Hwang walks in; he's been working on the formal written agreement regarding the crown prince. He scolds them all for worrying about Yangnyeong's successor rather than trying to find a solution. But PM Ha dismissively tells him to go back and work on the agreement.
Princess Shim goes to Choongnyeong to try to talk to him, but he immediately questions her motives. "I am worthless fool who can't even earn his wife's trust." Clearly he still feels that even she doubts his selfless intentions. Of course she's concerned, she tells him, about his getting involved in such risky matters. "No woman would want to see her husband hurt. It's natural to worry about the kids and the future." But then she switches gears. "If I were an ordinary citizen instead of your wife, I'd be scolding you." Startled, her husband turns toward her. "I know that there is not an ounce of personal interest in anything you do...and that the safety and welfare of the people is your only motivation. Don't give in. The fact that you have so many people fighting you may be proof that you're doing the right thing." Her words brighten him visibly.
Nighttime. Consort Hyobin goes to visit her son Kyoungnyeong, who's studying. They talk. He's sorry that she's had to live in the queen's shadow, and that he resented her even during her years of unhappiness. But now he wants to make her happy.
Late at night, Shim On has two visitors: Park Eun and Jo Malseng. They sit down and the two advise Shim, "You should start preparing for the future." Shim, startled, asks what they're talking about. Of all of the princes, they explain, Choongnyeong is the best choice to become crown prince. And they say that the king feels the same way. That day is coming, they tell him, so "You have to be his political mentor. Refine and polish his political skills, and prepare him to be the next crown prince." We'll help you if you need us.
Later that night, Shim is escorted outside to where Hyobin is waiting. She wants him to be her son's mentor! Of all of the princes, her son is the one who most has "all of king's majestic qualities. You know that as well as I." Shim is offended by the idea, and tells her that if the crown prince is finished, now I'm supposed to "get on a different horse"? Why should I; what will you give me in return? She kneels before him. "There is nothing I could give you right now. All I can do is...to show you the tears of a mother who is terrified about her child's future." And she cries.
Nighttime, Mapo ferry dock: The rebel armies are arriving and preparing. Inside, Ok Hwan leads a meeting and says, Tonight we'll strike the Hall of Great Peace (where the envoy is). And he instructs, Don't leave any of your injured men behind, but if any are captured, they must commit suicide to protect our identity. Back outside, Han Younglo volunteers his force to Wang Ahn to be the advance guard for the attack. Wang accepts.
Han's forces, with Wang and Han at the head on horseback, are disguised as palace guards; they approach the great hall, show a forged order, and tell the head guard that they're here to beef up security as ordered. The head guard says he's heard nothing of this and no one can pass, but they press him until he yields and allows them to pass into the compound. They position themselves around the envoy's building. Inside, we see several men run through the building, burst in on the envoy as he’s sleeping, and bind and gag him. Back outside, just as the rebel forces move in to attack the building, they're shot with flaming arrows from behind. By the palace guards. Wang and Han look around frantically; what went wrong? Somehow there was a leak of information. A battle ensues and Wang tells Han to order his troops to attack. But Han stares down Wang and says, "I'm afraid I can't do that, sir." So Han was the leak. Guards capture Wang and haul him away, but not before Wang spits into Han's face. Then Han says to himself, "Now it's your turn, Youngsil." Youngsil has been disguised as a soldier and is in the middle of the chaos. Han set him up, too. Jang searches through the bottles that have been dropped by the rebels, looking for gunpowder to defend himself with, but the bottles are empty. As guards converge on him, he flees into the woods. He takes an arrow to the arm and possibly another to the foot, and falls off a ledge into the darkness.
Haishou comes out of the hall and wants to know what's going on. There was a bit of a disturbance, they tell him. It's completely under control, but let’s just make sure the envoy wasn't disturbed by it. So they go to check Huang's bedroom, and Huang is gone! But who took him if it wasn't the rebels?
We see Huang inside of a carriage box, being taken somewhere in the darkness. He's pulled out of the box and brought in front of a dark shadow of a figure.
Outside of Huang's building, Yun tells escort Han, "I saved your life, lady." She feigns ignorance, but he holds the bowl in front of her. "Why don't you have a taste?" She won't do it, of course. He scolds her and tells her, "You'll find an angel of death waiting for you in the kitchen."
Noh Huibong is in the kitchen, and has Han enters he berates her about serving soured punch to the envoy. And to our surprise, the punch really is soured. He's furious and orders her to go back to the palace. She won't be cooking for the envoy any more.
Still outside, Jeon Ilji asks Yun what's going on (this must be feigning ignorance, too, since he knows about the poison). "Children don't need to know," Yun says. "Ignorance is bliss"...Flashback to late that afternoon. Han drops and breaks a dish. Yun asks her, "You're famous for being cautious and composed, but this is the third dish you broke today. Is something wrong?" She says nothing and leaves, but the girl cooks tell him she's been acting strangely since being called into the queen's hall that morning. Yun sends a secret note to Choongnyeong, asking that the royal attendant be sent over and the buckwheat crepes sent too. Later, spying on Han, Yun sees her put something into the punch, and then when she leaves he dumps a kettle of vinegar into it to make it seem like it's gone bad.
That night, in the darkness of his quarters, Huang Yan stares at the buckwheat crepes...Flashback to a scene of a boy pushing a girl on a swing....
Jeon Ilji jumps over a wall and leaves a secret message in a box that's hidden under a pile of leaves at the base of a tree.
Han tells the Queen that she was unsuccessful. "I think the new chef was tipped off," she says, and an even bigger issue is that the king's attendant got involved. But the queen reasons that the king must not know about her plot, or else there would have been trouble already. No, she decides, someone else must be involved; someone who could call in the attendant without the king knowing about it, and someone who is avoiding me rather than confronting me.
Choongnyeong is with Yi Su, who is trying to get the prince to report the queen's plot to the king. If you don't, he tells the prince, she'll just try to kill the envoy again. She's my mother, Choongnyeong says, which does not move Yi. "You know better than I do that you must think with your head and not with your heart." "I will not report this to the king," the prince answers. "I don't want my mother getting hurt."
Ok Hwan is with Foreman Jeon and Muby. Muby says, We should have gotten rid of Choongnyeong a long time ago; he just keeps disrupting our plans. Jeon counsels Ok, "The mission has failed while the public rage has greatly subsided." So we should turn the rebel troops around, right? No, Ok says, we can't turn them around without accomplishing something. "Find a way to break through this dilemma."
Jang Youngsil tells Wang Ahn that we can't win this battle; our weapons are pathetic. Wang snarls and accuses Jang of having a death wish. “Do you have a better idea? What can you do for us?" "I can make gunpowder," Jang tells him. Later that night (wow, that was fast), soldiers are testing the gunpowder by throwing Molotov cocktail-type bottles, which land and go boom. Wang and Han Younglo agree that "he's a smart kid," and if we use the bombs, our chances of success will double.
In the darkness, Yang is standing by himself. "Are you still having pipe dreams about my daughter?", Han asks. And then, "Let's put your talent to work and win the fight first. Then we'll talk." Yang smiles and shows human emotion, I think for the first time in the series.
Taejong is on horseback, riding along a lake shore by himself while his retinue watches from a distance. His brother's words and his wife's words are echoing through his head. As he returns, Prime Minister Ha asks him why he's out at such an early hour. Thirty years ago, Taejong says to him, you called me "a predestined king." So this is mostly all your fault. I shouldn't have risen to the throne; if I hadn't, "then I'd have been a better father." But Ha replies, "You were our only hope, and you still are." Ha tells the king to send the palace guards to collect the crown prince to be sent to Ming. But Taejong answers only that he's going to release the prince from custody.
Yangnyeong, back in royal clothes, leaves the ancestral shrine.
The queen is with attendant Noh and escort Han. Feigning pleasantry, she tells Noh, "You've become quite a politician. You're working with someone who's trying to steal the throne", yet you're doing a masterful job of covering yourself. Noh recoils in horror, assuring her that it isn't true, but she turns angry and says, "Tell me the truth before I cut off that tongue. Who is trying to send the crown prince away and steal the house?" No, it's not like that, he says, the royal prince was just...and he stops; he spilled the beans by accident. Her eyes widen. "Did you say royal prince!?"
Yangnyeong is before his father. "Give in to me just this once," the king says. "I can't gamble away the nation on a fight we can't win." You can hate me if you want...to which Yangnyeong interrupts, No I don't hate you, and I'll give in. "I'll go to Ming as a hostage. But I'm not giving in to you, father. I'm doing this for my weak and powerless homeland that I would have died to strengthen and protect." (Unavoidable editorial comment: Give it a rest, pal; you got yourself into this mess.)
The next day: Choongnyeong is with his two eunuchs and Yi Su, who are chased out of the room by a surprise visit from the queen. "You look busy," she tells him, and you look excited too. But how could you not be excited "when you're dreaming of rising to the throne." No, mother, he says, you've got this all wrong. "Then why did you advise the king to send the crown prince to Ming" and why did you interfere with my effort to poison the envoy? Do you want power that badly? And then she dishes out the You-are-not-my-son-any-more stuff; my son would never do such things to me. And she storms out, leaving Choongnyeong devastated and in tears.
Minister Hwang is summoned to see the crown prince. "I wanted to thank you," Yangnyeong tells the minister. "They told me it was you. You protected the scholars who mean so much to me." No, Hwang says, "I held them back by force like everyone else." But the prince observes, "They may not have survived the night if it wasn't for you." What a shame, the prince muses, that I couldn't have become king and had a faithful retainer like you serve me. We could have built a strong nation together with the scholars. "Please look after them in my absence, minister Hwang." Both men are almost mournful.
Prince Hyoryeong goes to visit Yangnyeong and tries to tell him "the truth," but Yangnyeong gives his brother the brush-off.
The ministers are meeting, discussing who should become the next crown prince. Hyoryeong is next in line, but is he competent enough for it? Then Hwang walks in; he's been working on the formal written agreement regarding the crown prince. He scolds them all for worrying about Yangnyeong's successor rather than trying to find a solution. But PM Ha dismissively tells him to go back and work on the agreement.
Princess Shim goes to Choongnyeong to try to talk to him, but he immediately questions her motives. "I am worthless fool who can't even earn his wife's trust." Clearly he still feels that even she doubts his selfless intentions. Of course she's concerned, she tells him, about his getting involved in such risky matters. "No woman would want to see her husband hurt. It's natural to worry about the kids and the future." But then she switches gears. "If I were an ordinary citizen instead of your wife, I'd be scolding you." Startled, her husband turns toward her. "I know that there is not an ounce of personal interest in anything you do...and that the safety and welfare of the people is your only motivation. Don't give in. The fact that you have so many people fighting you may be proof that you're doing the right thing." Her words brighten him visibly.
Nighttime. Consort Hyobin goes to visit her son Kyoungnyeong, who's studying. They talk. He's sorry that she's had to live in the queen's shadow, and that he resented her even during her years of unhappiness. But now he wants to make her happy.
Late at night, Shim On has two visitors: Park Eun and Jo Malseng. They sit down and the two advise Shim, "You should start preparing for the future." Shim, startled, asks what they're talking about. Of all of the princes, they explain, Choongnyeong is the best choice to become crown prince. And they say that the king feels the same way. That day is coming, they tell him, so "You have to be his political mentor. Refine and polish his political skills, and prepare him to be the next crown prince." We'll help you if you need us.
Later that night, Shim is escorted outside to where Hyobin is waiting. She wants him to be her son's mentor! Of all of the princes, her son is the one who most has "all of king's majestic qualities. You know that as well as I." Shim is offended by the idea, and tells her that if the crown prince is finished, now I'm supposed to "get on a different horse"? Why should I; what will you give me in return? She kneels before him. "There is nothing I could give you right now. All I can do is...to show you the tears of a mother who is terrified about her child's future." And she cries.
Nighttime, Mapo ferry dock: The rebel armies are arriving and preparing. Inside, Ok Hwan leads a meeting and says, Tonight we'll strike the Hall of Great Peace (where the envoy is). And he instructs, Don't leave any of your injured men behind, but if any are captured, they must commit suicide to protect our identity. Back outside, Han Younglo volunteers his force to Wang Ahn to be the advance guard for the attack. Wang accepts.
Han's forces, with Wang and Han at the head on horseback, are disguised as palace guards; they approach the great hall, show a forged order, and tell the head guard that they're here to beef up security as ordered. The head guard says he's heard nothing of this and no one can pass, but they press him until he yields and allows them to pass into the compound. They position themselves around the envoy's building. Inside, we see several men run through the building, burst in on the envoy as he’s sleeping, and bind and gag him. Back outside, just as the rebel forces move in to attack the building, they're shot with flaming arrows from behind. By the palace guards. Wang and Han look around frantically; what went wrong? Somehow there was a leak of information. A battle ensues and Wang tells Han to order his troops to attack. But Han stares down Wang and says, "I'm afraid I can't do that, sir." So Han was the leak. Guards capture Wang and haul him away, but not before Wang spits into Han's face. Then Han says to himself, "Now it's your turn, Youngsil." Youngsil has been disguised as a soldier and is in the middle of the chaos. Han set him up, too. Jang searches through the bottles that have been dropped by the rebels, looking for gunpowder to defend himself with, but the bottles are empty. As guards converge on him, he flees into the woods. He takes an arrow to the arm and possibly another to the foot, and falls off a ledge into the darkness.
Haishou comes out of the hall and wants to know what's going on. There was a bit of a disturbance, they tell him. It's completely under control, but let’s just make sure the envoy wasn't disturbed by it. So they go to check Huang's bedroom, and Huang is gone! But who took him if it wasn't the rebels?
We see Huang inside of a carriage box, being taken somewhere in the darkness. He's pulled out of the box and brought in front of a dark shadow of a figure.