Post by ajk on Oct 29, 2008 15:10:33 GMT -5
The search party makes a paper/ink imprint of the inscription on the demarcation marker.
At the Jurchen Uliangha headquarters: Simta tells Li Manzhu that Wang Zhen is secretly in Liaodong territory and in contact with Tongmingge. Understandably, Li isn't happy about this.
We see Haishou asking Wang Zhen if he really intends to turn over Liaodong to Tongmingge and the Odoli (if they succeed). Supremacy of Ming, Wang answers, belongs only to Ming. "Play one barbarian against another. Tongmingge is a tool to break Joseon's ambition!" So no, he doesn't.
Nighttime in the woods: Tongmingge and a squad of Odoli soldiers have found Yi Su and the search party. Tongmingge demands to know the location of the marker. Yi Su refuses. "I guess I have no choice," Tongmingge replies. "Wipe them out!" His soldiers move forward...and attack. You expect this to be a rout--the search party is outnumbered and the Odoli are bearing those wicked axes--but the northern civilians fight back ferociously. Gang Hui is there too and is a bodyguard, so he can fight with the best of them. And Yi Su shows some surprising fight as well, even managing to grab Tongmingge's axe and whack him in the arm with it.
Still nighttime: We see Tongguanto come upon the demarcation marker...and later he comes upon Tongmingge and his squad. They've been whupped! Lots of moaning and groaning and pain. Tongmingge sits among them holding his arm.
Tongmingge and Tongguanto are back before Wang Zhen and Haishou. Haishou slugs Tongguanto, which knocks him down, and then begins kicking him. (Wussy-boy; he does it to the skinny young subordinate but doesn't touch the burly head man.) He backs off. "We did our best," Tongmingge tells Wang, who can only mutter, "Incompetent fool!"
Yi Su tells the search party to go back to Gonghumjin. "We must protect the demarcation marker," he's realized. "If they should find the marker and destroy it, all of our efforts will be in vain. I will go back alone, validate the true existence of the marker and make necessary arrangements. It is your job to protect the stone marker until then." (That's gonna be a tough job, alone out there in hostile territory.) "Guard it with your life. Don't forget that the fate of Joseon is in your hands."
At the weapons testing ground: Cannons are being fired. Yi Chun, Choi Haesan and Jang Youngsil are supervising. Sejong comes to review the test, and remarks that the cannon range isn't getting any better. But Yi and Choi are more concerned at the moment about securing a steady supply of gunpowder than about the weapon range. Turns out, Joseon got most of the potassium nitrate for its gunpowder from Ming, but now Ming is blocking all trade in it.
Back at the Uliangha headquarters: Li Manzhu realizes that they may be forced to fight for themselves if Tongmingge is successful, and "we don't have the technology to take care of ourselves." That is, weapons technology (which they'd need if the Odoli got Ming's backing). But Simta knows someone who does. His name is Gim Sae; he's a Ming weapons expert, and he's a Uliangha. As we learn this, we're shown a scene of Gim at work supervising a Peking weapons armory. "He'll come to us on his own," Simta says. "Because he is one of us." Li smiles.
Sejong is meeting with scholars and officials. He wants additional compulsory labor, a 20 percent budget cut in all city departments, and new avenues for potassium nitrate trade--Japan, Mongolia, wherever. This is a tough list. He leaves the room, but Yun Hwe chases after him and begs him to reconsider the budget order. "High ministers are discontented as it is. If you enforce this budget reduction, you will face severe opposition." But Sejong advises him to worry about the country's border, not discontented ministers.
"We will do this ourselves!" Wang Zhen, accompanied by Haishou and others, is walking purposefully through the Ming palace grounds.
Inside a room, we see a squad of men loading throwing knives into special wrist sheaths. (Ah, so THAT'S how Wang Zhen produces them seemingly out of nowhere.) No sooner do we think of Wang than a knife comes flying through the room and at one of the men. The man, identified as Yanguo, dodges and catches the knife in mid-air. And of course, Wang has just come into the room; he threw the knife as a friendly hello to Yanguo, knowing that he had the reflexes to catch it. (Some greeting!) They smile at each other. Wang tells Yanguo, "I need you to take care of a headache for me...minister of military Yi Su of Joseon."
Nighttime: Yi Su is sneaking through the countryside. At the same time, a Ming squad is on horseback, galloping, trying to catch up to him. Then we see Yi Su on a boat, crossing the Tuman River....just as the Ming squad arrives on the bank. Whew, close one.
Yun Hwe is putting reports and papers in front of Sejong. Papers relating to distribution of the farming improvements book, the water mills, construction of the observatory, astronomical instruments and clocks, and other such things. These, Yun tells the king, are what you should be concerning yourself with. "We're not asking you to stop the demarcation issue and move the border back because we don't have any pride. [But] this country is just beginning to return to financial stability" and you can't sacrifice that now. Sejong fires back, if the country is financially stable, then this is precisely the time to go forward. "And I believe a certain amount of sacrifice is justified for this cause." Yun repeats the crown prince's argument: "Ming is a shield that will protect us from the Jurchens." But Sejong asks, "Who will Joseon turn to if Ming falls?" That stops Yun in his tracks. "The king's decisions are not for today only. The choices I make today could decide what happens 100 years from now. If we rely solely on a superior state to protect us...we could end up becoming a tributary state to Ming. I want to give the crown prince and the people strength and pride to protect ourselves." Yun doesn't say another word; the king has obviously given him a lot to think about.
Haeju, Hwanghae province: Nighttime has fallen. Yi Su arrives at an outdoor restaurant and asks a woman for a bowl of soup and some rice. It's very late, but the woman is happy to serve him and even brings him some wine to drink, which he does. Just then we hear a horse whinny out in the darkness. Yi dives for cover under the table, not knowing who may be out there...and then he blacks out. The woman looks up--at the Ming squad. They approach.
In a darkened room, Yi Su is being roughed up by a few of the squad, whose faces are covered with black masks. They stop the beating. Then the leader kneels next to Yi Su and tells him, "The wine you drank was poisoned. I want the location of the Gonghumjin demarcation marker. Then I will give you the antidote." Yi won't give it, of course, and only asks in a weak voice, "Who sent you? Who is behind this?" "You should be worried about your life right now. Hand over the map." "Give it up. You can't get what you want." "Where did you hide the map?" Yi has had enough of this; he lunges forward and rips the man's mask off. It's Haishou! "I see. Information has leaked to Ming as well." "You should worry about your life." "I don't know about you, but I value my country Joseon more than I value my life." Trying another tactic, Haishou pulls a vial out of his pocket; the vial contains the antidote (he says) and he tries to tempt Yi with it. But Yi ignores it. "If you have the time to worry about my life, you should think about what you need to do to preserve the dignity of Ming." Haishou punches him and Yi blacks out again.
We see a horse-drown enclosed cart clacking through a trail in the nighttime woods. From its back, it dumps Yi's unconscious body, and continues on. As Yi lies there, we can see that he's concealing something in his hand--clutching it tightly. But in the darkness we can't clearly see what it is.
Haishou and Yanguo are talking; now we know that Yanguo was part of this too. "We should've killed him," Yanguo says. "We can't leave any traces of murder," Haishou tells him. "He can't last long anyway."
Morning: Yi Su is awakened by a horse! It's nosing around him. Where the heck did this come from? The horse is even saddled. "There is a god after all," Yi says to himself. He staggers up onto it, lying awkwardly rather than sitting upright, and tells it, "Take us back home." And it goes! It even acknowledges with a whinny. (What am I watching, "Mr. Ed"?)
A knife goes whizzing by Haishou, who's standing next to Yanguo. Haishou rubs his arm; he felt that one. Wang Zhen threw it at him. "It'll be your heart the next time you fail," he tells Haishou. "Find the demarcation marker and destroy it. If you can't find it, destroy the entire mountain range!" And he turns his back to them. He's really steamed.
Nighttime: Gim Jongsuh happens to be at the city gate when a horse slowly approaches from the darkness. Gim is stunned to see Yi Su fall off the horse and land practically at his feet. "What happened to you, sir?" All he can say is, "I'm running out of time." Sejong is informed and rushes out of the palace.
Yi Su has been brought into a room somewhere; he's refused medical help, saying it's useless. He reaches his hand out to Sejong, who runs over and grabs it. "Go to Gwangjo temple in Haeju," he tells the king. "Your dream and mine...no, Joseon's dream...is buried there. You will find it easily. Forgive me for being unable to bid proper farewell..." Don't say that, Sejong tells him; now that you're back we must have a drink like we said we would. "Stay with me, master." But Yi knows he won't be able to, and has some final advice for his former pupil. "It's going to be tough. Things are not going to get any easier. But you'll get through it like you have so far." Yun Hwe is there but has his back turned; he hasn't been able to watch any of this. But he finally turns, and Yi smiles at him. Yun approaches; his face is the last thing Yi Su sees. He goes limp and unconscious, and dies. The room goes silent for what seems like forever. Sejong, Yun Hwe, Gim Jongsuh, Jeong Inji, and Um Jachi are all there, but no one makes a sound. They're all stunned and in disbelief. Finally Yun Hwe breaks the silence. "Open your eyes. Open them. Don't you have anything to say to me? Aren't you upset with me? Chew me out. You can't just go like this. Minister Yi. Minister!"...Flashback from the previous episode; Yi imploring Yun to support the king...Flashback ending, tears flow from everyone. (Note: It sure seemed odd that Yi didn't say a word about Ming poisoning him.)
The next morning: we see Sejong, Yun Hwe and others walking towards Gwangjo Temple. As they walk, and throughout this scene, we see flashbacks from Yi Su's most significant moments in the series, going all the way back to his time as the young prince Choongnyeong's teacher. The party reaches a tree near the temple; the tree has had an inscription cut into it, reading vertically down its trunk. (Unfortunately the inscription wasn't English-subtitled for us.) Sejong looks at the tree and wonders, "Is this where you buried Joseon's dream?"...Flashback to a previously unseen part of Yi Su's journey home; he's kneeling in front of the tree and has dug a shallow hole with his hands. From inside his shirt he pulls out a cloth, in which is wrapped the marker imprint (and presumably the old map). He buries the cloth in the hole, takes out a knife, and carves the inscription in the tree, all the while making sure that nobody's watching him...Flashback ending, Sejong is overcome. He falls to his knees and cries, overcome with emotion as he reads the inscription on the tree. Everyone else has gathered around him. (But we never saw them dig up the cloth! They really should have shown us that.)
Some days later: A Ming diplomatic mission led by Wang Zhen has arrived at the Hall of Great Peace. But there's no formal reception for them. Haishou demands to know why Sejong isn't following diplomatic protocol. Yun Hwe explains, "His majesty does not wish to follow any protocol for the Ming envoys." Haishou gets angry: "Do you think you'll get away with slighting Great Ming and the emperor?" Yun fires back fearlessly, "Do you think you'll get away with slighting Joseon?" "How dare you threaten us!" "Have you done something wrong to feel threatened by my threat?" Haishou can't take it any more and pleads with Wang, "Sir, we must go back at once!" Wang raises his hand and silences him. "Let's hear the reason why this self-proclaimed civilized country Joseon is acting with such contempt and disrespect." Yun Hwe tells Wang, "His majesty wishes to forego all of the formalities and see you as friends." "Friends?" "My king is in deep sorrow right now. There has been a death in the country that merits national mourning. His majesty seeks your condolences."
Sejong is alone in a room, kneeling before a small shrine. Wang Zhen and an interpreter enter. With his back to them, Sejong invites them to sit down. "The departed minister of military was like a father to me," he tells them. Wang replies, "I heard he died an untimely death." How did he know that? "You are a leader of the Dongchang indeed," Sejong says. "I've put a strict gag order on the details of minister Yi's death, but the Ming intelligence agency already knows about it." Wang says with pride, "Dongchang can find out how many hairs you have on your head if we want." Sejong finally turns around and faces Wang. "Would you help me with that ability? I want to find the culprit who killed my master." What can Wang say? "I will give it a shot." Sejong smiles. "That makes me feel much better. I think we can proceed with official matters now." Then Wang flips open a fan and fans himself with it. The fan is white, but near one edge we see a round, red, flower-like emblem. Oddly, Sejong stares at the fan. Then he looks back at Wang, expressionless.
In the throne room: Sejong is holding something in his hand and staring at it. It's the black mask that Yi Su stripped off Haishou's head. It's what he was holding in his hand when he was dumped from the cart, and he obviously held onto it the whole way home. And it has a red emblem on it--the same emblem we just saw on Wang Zhen's fan. (This is one of those shout-out-loud moments; a real highlight of the series. Because with that one image, everything clicks together and we realize that Yi Su DID manage to reveal the identity of his killer after all, or at least the power behind him.) When Sejong saw Wang's fan, he obviously put it all together right then and there--yet he didn’t even flinch. "I know that took restraint," Yun Hwe tells him, a monumental understatement. Sejong replies, "You're the one who taught me not to put all of the cards on the table at once. Start with the obvious cards first."
The paper imprint is shown to the envoys. Yun Hwe tells them that the Ming Taizu emperor acknowledged the demarcation marker as the Joseon border and that he wants them to present its re-discovery to the current emperor. The envoys can't take this seriously--"You want us to go back with a piece of paper?" "Of course not," Yun says, obviously with something more substantial in mind.
Yun Hwe and Gim Jongsuh have brought the envoys to the site of the marker! The site has been cleaned up and the marker has been stood upright and is now at the top of a hill. (It must have toppled over and slid down to where it was found.) The northerners are there too, rightfully proud of their success. Obviously they did a great job of protecting it. Gim smiles at Dami, who nods back at him (all right, enough of this, you two--just get a room already). Yun Hwe tells Wang, "If this stone marker should disappear or be destroyed, Joseon will hold Ming responsible." Wang is dumbfounded; "On what basis?" Yun says, "On the basis that Ming failed to protect the border of a cherished sister state." (He elaborates a bit on this, but the rest of it escaped me because it seemed like a rather weak argument. But maybe I just didn't follow it. The envoys offered no immediate counter-argument, so it must have made some sense to them.)
Narration and maps explain to us that thirty years after Joseon's founding, the nation had finally restored a secure border. Further reclamation work in the new territory included establishment of four forts and six posts. All in all, "a leap of the Korean race through frontier expansion."
Zijincheng (the Forbidden City), Peking: It's nighttime and we're shown one heck of a creepy scene. Wang Zhen is bound and suspended far above a big kettle of boiling liquid. He's frightened and whimpering. From within the darkness of an overlooking room, we see a hand holding a handkerchief out of a window. Then the handkerchief is dropped and falls to the ground. A rope is cut, and a screaming Wang plunges towards the kettle.
At a meeting of some officials and scholars, Choi Manli asks whether or not the marker's rediscovery is "a gift that the king's mentor gave Joseon? Or is it an omen of sinister things to come?" So he's still stirring up trouble over this.
Turns out, Wang didn't get boiled. He's hanging there only a few feet from the liquid. So there must have been two ropes suspending him. From the dark building we see the hand (it must be the emperor's hand) give an upward motion, palm up. Wang is raised. So this wasn't an execution; apparently is was a scare-the-crap-out-of-the-guy form of punishment.
"I do not want Joseon's influence to reach the north." Wang Zhen is kneeling (practically groveling) before a figure whose back is turned; this clearly is the new emperor. "This is your last chance, Wang Zhen. If you fail to stop Joseon's audacious rampancy, you will have to face death."
Yun Hwe is meeting with military generals, trying to rouse them to support the border expansion. "We cannot let minister of military Yi Su's death be in vain. Secure borders are...the lifeline of the people." The generals have never been in favor of the expansion, but Yun Hwe seems to have persuaded them because we see them thinking and nodding their heads.
Yun leaves, and encounters Hwang Hee in the hallway. "You stirred up the generals with your eloquent speech, so I guess you will be going to the north now." "Yes because that's where the answer is. The key to stopping the enemy will be found at the enemy lines." "Do you think this is wise?, Hwang asks him, noting that nothing about the country's difficult internal situation has changed. "Is it wise to fill his majesty's remaining tenure with war?" Yun answers, "I think that's better than 300 more years of submission. Do you know what I have learned through Yi Su's death? Getting angry when you are angry--that's the greatest wisdom."
Li Manzhu is before Wang Zhen. "You will have all the gunpowder you need." Li is wide-eyed; he can hardly believe it.
We see the Uliangha clan's arsenal. They're making cannons--lots of them. Gim Sae is there, inspecting and supervising. From a distance, Yun Hwe, Choi Haesan and Jang Youngsil are observing.
"The Jurchens have acquired gunpowder weapons?" The three have reported back to Sejong. They have seven large arsenals, and Ming is helping them make advanced weapons. "We must destroy the enemy's supply base," Yi Chun says. Youngsil adds, And to do that we'll need a new form of weapon. Sejong ponders what this means. "A completely new weapon?"
At the Jurchen Uliangha headquarters: Simta tells Li Manzhu that Wang Zhen is secretly in Liaodong territory and in contact with Tongmingge. Understandably, Li isn't happy about this.
We see Haishou asking Wang Zhen if he really intends to turn over Liaodong to Tongmingge and the Odoli (if they succeed). Supremacy of Ming, Wang answers, belongs only to Ming. "Play one barbarian against another. Tongmingge is a tool to break Joseon's ambition!" So no, he doesn't.
Nighttime in the woods: Tongmingge and a squad of Odoli soldiers have found Yi Su and the search party. Tongmingge demands to know the location of the marker. Yi Su refuses. "I guess I have no choice," Tongmingge replies. "Wipe them out!" His soldiers move forward...and attack. You expect this to be a rout--the search party is outnumbered and the Odoli are bearing those wicked axes--but the northern civilians fight back ferociously. Gang Hui is there too and is a bodyguard, so he can fight with the best of them. And Yi Su shows some surprising fight as well, even managing to grab Tongmingge's axe and whack him in the arm with it.
Still nighttime: We see Tongguanto come upon the demarcation marker...and later he comes upon Tongmingge and his squad. They've been whupped! Lots of moaning and groaning and pain. Tongmingge sits among them holding his arm.
Tongmingge and Tongguanto are back before Wang Zhen and Haishou. Haishou slugs Tongguanto, which knocks him down, and then begins kicking him. (Wussy-boy; he does it to the skinny young subordinate but doesn't touch the burly head man.) He backs off. "We did our best," Tongmingge tells Wang, who can only mutter, "Incompetent fool!"
Yi Su tells the search party to go back to Gonghumjin. "We must protect the demarcation marker," he's realized. "If they should find the marker and destroy it, all of our efforts will be in vain. I will go back alone, validate the true existence of the marker and make necessary arrangements. It is your job to protect the stone marker until then." (That's gonna be a tough job, alone out there in hostile territory.) "Guard it with your life. Don't forget that the fate of Joseon is in your hands."
At the weapons testing ground: Cannons are being fired. Yi Chun, Choi Haesan and Jang Youngsil are supervising. Sejong comes to review the test, and remarks that the cannon range isn't getting any better. But Yi and Choi are more concerned at the moment about securing a steady supply of gunpowder than about the weapon range. Turns out, Joseon got most of the potassium nitrate for its gunpowder from Ming, but now Ming is blocking all trade in it.
Back at the Uliangha headquarters: Li Manzhu realizes that they may be forced to fight for themselves if Tongmingge is successful, and "we don't have the technology to take care of ourselves." That is, weapons technology (which they'd need if the Odoli got Ming's backing). But Simta knows someone who does. His name is Gim Sae; he's a Ming weapons expert, and he's a Uliangha. As we learn this, we're shown a scene of Gim at work supervising a Peking weapons armory. "He'll come to us on his own," Simta says. "Because he is one of us." Li smiles.
Sejong is meeting with scholars and officials. He wants additional compulsory labor, a 20 percent budget cut in all city departments, and new avenues for potassium nitrate trade--Japan, Mongolia, wherever. This is a tough list. He leaves the room, but Yun Hwe chases after him and begs him to reconsider the budget order. "High ministers are discontented as it is. If you enforce this budget reduction, you will face severe opposition." But Sejong advises him to worry about the country's border, not discontented ministers.
"We will do this ourselves!" Wang Zhen, accompanied by Haishou and others, is walking purposefully through the Ming palace grounds.
Inside a room, we see a squad of men loading throwing knives into special wrist sheaths. (Ah, so THAT'S how Wang Zhen produces them seemingly out of nowhere.) No sooner do we think of Wang than a knife comes flying through the room and at one of the men. The man, identified as Yanguo, dodges and catches the knife in mid-air. And of course, Wang has just come into the room; he threw the knife as a friendly hello to Yanguo, knowing that he had the reflexes to catch it. (Some greeting!) They smile at each other. Wang tells Yanguo, "I need you to take care of a headache for me...minister of military Yi Su of Joseon."
Nighttime: Yi Su is sneaking through the countryside. At the same time, a Ming squad is on horseback, galloping, trying to catch up to him. Then we see Yi Su on a boat, crossing the Tuman River....just as the Ming squad arrives on the bank. Whew, close one.
Yun Hwe is putting reports and papers in front of Sejong. Papers relating to distribution of the farming improvements book, the water mills, construction of the observatory, astronomical instruments and clocks, and other such things. These, Yun tells the king, are what you should be concerning yourself with. "We're not asking you to stop the demarcation issue and move the border back because we don't have any pride. [But] this country is just beginning to return to financial stability" and you can't sacrifice that now. Sejong fires back, if the country is financially stable, then this is precisely the time to go forward. "And I believe a certain amount of sacrifice is justified for this cause." Yun repeats the crown prince's argument: "Ming is a shield that will protect us from the Jurchens." But Sejong asks, "Who will Joseon turn to if Ming falls?" That stops Yun in his tracks. "The king's decisions are not for today only. The choices I make today could decide what happens 100 years from now. If we rely solely on a superior state to protect us...we could end up becoming a tributary state to Ming. I want to give the crown prince and the people strength and pride to protect ourselves." Yun doesn't say another word; the king has obviously given him a lot to think about.
Haeju, Hwanghae province: Nighttime has fallen. Yi Su arrives at an outdoor restaurant and asks a woman for a bowl of soup and some rice. It's very late, but the woman is happy to serve him and even brings him some wine to drink, which he does. Just then we hear a horse whinny out in the darkness. Yi dives for cover under the table, not knowing who may be out there...and then he blacks out. The woman looks up--at the Ming squad. They approach.
In a darkened room, Yi Su is being roughed up by a few of the squad, whose faces are covered with black masks. They stop the beating. Then the leader kneels next to Yi Su and tells him, "The wine you drank was poisoned. I want the location of the Gonghumjin demarcation marker. Then I will give you the antidote." Yi won't give it, of course, and only asks in a weak voice, "Who sent you? Who is behind this?" "You should be worried about your life right now. Hand over the map." "Give it up. You can't get what you want." "Where did you hide the map?" Yi has had enough of this; he lunges forward and rips the man's mask off. It's Haishou! "I see. Information has leaked to Ming as well." "You should worry about your life." "I don't know about you, but I value my country Joseon more than I value my life." Trying another tactic, Haishou pulls a vial out of his pocket; the vial contains the antidote (he says) and he tries to tempt Yi with it. But Yi ignores it. "If you have the time to worry about my life, you should think about what you need to do to preserve the dignity of Ming." Haishou punches him and Yi blacks out again.
We see a horse-drown enclosed cart clacking through a trail in the nighttime woods. From its back, it dumps Yi's unconscious body, and continues on. As Yi lies there, we can see that he's concealing something in his hand--clutching it tightly. But in the darkness we can't clearly see what it is.
Haishou and Yanguo are talking; now we know that Yanguo was part of this too. "We should've killed him," Yanguo says. "We can't leave any traces of murder," Haishou tells him. "He can't last long anyway."
Morning: Yi Su is awakened by a horse! It's nosing around him. Where the heck did this come from? The horse is even saddled. "There is a god after all," Yi says to himself. He staggers up onto it, lying awkwardly rather than sitting upright, and tells it, "Take us back home." And it goes! It even acknowledges with a whinny. (What am I watching, "Mr. Ed"?)
A knife goes whizzing by Haishou, who's standing next to Yanguo. Haishou rubs his arm; he felt that one. Wang Zhen threw it at him. "It'll be your heart the next time you fail," he tells Haishou. "Find the demarcation marker and destroy it. If you can't find it, destroy the entire mountain range!" And he turns his back to them. He's really steamed.
Nighttime: Gim Jongsuh happens to be at the city gate when a horse slowly approaches from the darkness. Gim is stunned to see Yi Su fall off the horse and land practically at his feet. "What happened to you, sir?" All he can say is, "I'm running out of time." Sejong is informed and rushes out of the palace.
Yi Su has been brought into a room somewhere; he's refused medical help, saying it's useless. He reaches his hand out to Sejong, who runs over and grabs it. "Go to Gwangjo temple in Haeju," he tells the king. "Your dream and mine...no, Joseon's dream...is buried there. You will find it easily. Forgive me for being unable to bid proper farewell..." Don't say that, Sejong tells him; now that you're back we must have a drink like we said we would. "Stay with me, master." But Yi knows he won't be able to, and has some final advice for his former pupil. "It's going to be tough. Things are not going to get any easier. But you'll get through it like you have so far." Yun Hwe is there but has his back turned; he hasn't been able to watch any of this. But he finally turns, and Yi smiles at him. Yun approaches; his face is the last thing Yi Su sees. He goes limp and unconscious, and dies. The room goes silent for what seems like forever. Sejong, Yun Hwe, Gim Jongsuh, Jeong Inji, and Um Jachi are all there, but no one makes a sound. They're all stunned and in disbelief. Finally Yun Hwe breaks the silence. "Open your eyes. Open them. Don't you have anything to say to me? Aren't you upset with me? Chew me out. You can't just go like this. Minister Yi. Minister!"...Flashback from the previous episode; Yi imploring Yun to support the king...Flashback ending, tears flow from everyone. (Note: It sure seemed odd that Yi didn't say a word about Ming poisoning him.)
The next morning: we see Sejong, Yun Hwe and others walking towards Gwangjo Temple. As they walk, and throughout this scene, we see flashbacks from Yi Su's most significant moments in the series, going all the way back to his time as the young prince Choongnyeong's teacher. The party reaches a tree near the temple; the tree has had an inscription cut into it, reading vertically down its trunk. (Unfortunately the inscription wasn't English-subtitled for us.) Sejong looks at the tree and wonders, "Is this where you buried Joseon's dream?"...Flashback to a previously unseen part of Yi Su's journey home; he's kneeling in front of the tree and has dug a shallow hole with his hands. From inside his shirt he pulls out a cloth, in which is wrapped the marker imprint (and presumably the old map). He buries the cloth in the hole, takes out a knife, and carves the inscription in the tree, all the while making sure that nobody's watching him...Flashback ending, Sejong is overcome. He falls to his knees and cries, overcome with emotion as he reads the inscription on the tree. Everyone else has gathered around him. (But we never saw them dig up the cloth! They really should have shown us that.)
Some days later: A Ming diplomatic mission led by Wang Zhen has arrived at the Hall of Great Peace. But there's no formal reception for them. Haishou demands to know why Sejong isn't following diplomatic protocol. Yun Hwe explains, "His majesty does not wish to follow any protocol for the Ming envoys." Haishou gets angry: "Do you think you'll get away with slighting Great Ming and the emperor?" Yun fires back fearlessly, "Do you think you'll get away with slighting Joseon?" "How dare you threaten us!" "Have you done something wrong to feel threatened by my threat?" Haishou can't take it any more and pleads with Wang, "Sir, we must go back at once!" Wang raises his hand and silences him. "Let's hear the reason why this self-proclaimed civilized country Joseon is acting with such contempt and disrespect." Yun Hwe tells Wang, "His majesty wishes to forego all of the formalities and see you as friends." "Friends?" "My king is in deep sorrow right now. There has been a death in the country that merits national mourning. His majesty seeks your condolences."
Sejong is alone in a room, kneeling before a small shrine. Wang Zhen and an interpreter enter. With his back to them, Sejong invites them to sit down. "The departed minister of military was like a father to me," he tells them. Wang replies, "I heard he died an untimely death." How did he know that? "You are a leader of the Dongchang indeed," Sejong says. "I've put a strict gag order on the details of minister Yi's death, but the Ming intelligence agency already knows about it." Wang says with pride, "Dongchang can find out how many hairs you have on your head if we want." Sejong finally turns around and faces Wang. "Would you help me with that ability? I want to find the culprit who killed my master." What can Wang say? "I will give it a shot." Sejong smiles. "That makes me feel much better. I think we can proceed with official matters now." Then Wang flips open a fan and fans himself with it. The fan is white, but near one edge we see a round, red, flower-like emblem. Oddly, Sejong stares at the fan. Then he looks back at Wang, expressionless.
In the throne room: Sejong is holding something in his hand and staring at it. It's the black mask that Yi Su stripped off Haishou's head. It's what he was holding in his hand when he was dumped from the cart, and he obviously held onto it the whole way home. And it has a red emblem on it--the same emblem we just saw on Wang Zhen's fan. (This is one of those shout-out-loud moments; a real highlight of the series. Because with that one image, everything clicks together and we realize that Yi Su DID manage to reveal the identity of his killer after all, or at least the power behind him.) When Sejong saw Wang's fan, he obviously put it all together right then and there--yet he didn’t even flinch. "I know that took restraint," Yun Hwe tells him, a monumental understatement. Sejong replies, "You're the one who taught me not to put all of the cards on the table at once. Start with the obvious cards first."
The paper imprint is shown to the envoys. Yun Hwe tells them that the Ming Taizu emperor acknowledged the demarcation marker as the Joseon border and that he wants them to present its re-discovery to the current emperor. The envoys can't take this seriously--"You want us to go back with a piece of paper?" "Of course not," Yun says, obviously with something more substantial in mind.
Yun Hwe and Gim Jongsuh have brought the envoys to the site of the marker! The site has been cleaned up and the marker has been stood upright and is now at the top of a hill. (It must have toppled over and slid down to where it was found.) The northerners are there too, rightfully proud of their success. Obviously they did a great job of protecting it. Gim smiles at Dami, who nods back at him (all right, enough of this, you two--just get a room already). Yun Hwe tells Wang, "If this stone marker should disappear or be destroyed, Joseon will hold Ming responsible." Wang is dumbfounded; "On what basis?" Yun says, "On the basis that Ming failed to protect the border of a cherished sister state." (He elaborates a bit on this, but the rest of it escaped me because it seemed like a rather weak argument. But maybe I just didn't follow it. The envoys offered no immediate counter-argument, so it must have made some sense to them.)
Narration and maps explain to us that thirty years after Joseon's founding, the nation had finally restored a secure border. Further reclamation work in the new territory included establishment of four forts and six posts. All in all, "a leap of the Korean race through frontier expansion."
Zijincheng (the Forbidden City), Peking: It's nighttime and we're shown one heck of a creepy scene. Wang Zhen is bound and suspended far above a big kettle of boiling liquid. He's frightened and whimpering. From within the darkness of an overlooking room, we see a hand holding a handkerchief out of a window. Then the handkerchief is dropped and falls to the ground. A rope is cut, and a screaming Wang plunges towards the kettle.
At a meeting of some officials and scholars, Choi Manli asks whether or not the marker's rediscovery is "a gift that the king's mentor gave Joseon? Or is it an omen of sinister things to come?" So he's still stirring up trouble over this.
Turns out, Wang didn't get boiled. He's hanging there only a few feet from the liquid. So there must have been two ropes suspending him. From the dark building we see the hand (it must be the emperor's hand) give an upward motion, palm up. Wang is raised. So this wasn't an execution; apparently is was a scare-the-crap-out-of-the-guy form of punishment.
"I do not want Joseon's influence to reach the north." Wang Zhen is kneeling (practically groveling) before a figure whose back is turned; this clearly is the new emperor. "This is your last chance, Wang Zhen. If you fail to stop Joseon's audacious rampancy, you will have to face death."
Yun Hwe is meeting with military generals, trying to rouse them to support the border expansion. "We cannot let minister of military Yi Su's death be in vain. Secure borders are...the lifeline of the people." The generals have never been in favor of the expansion, but Yun Hwe seems to have persuaded them because we see them thinking and nodding their heads.
Yun leaves, and encounters Hwang Hee in the hallway. "You stirred up the generals with your eloquent speech, so I guess you will be going to the north now." "Yes because that's where the answer is. The key to stopping the enemy will be found at the enemy lines." "Do you think this is wise?, Hwang asks him, noting that nothing about the country's difficult internal situation has changed. "Is it wise to fill his majesty's remaining tenure with war?" Yun answers, "I think that's better than 300 more years of submission. Do you know what I have learned through Yi Su's death? Getting angry when you are angry--that's the greatest wisdom."
Li Manzhu is before Wang Zhen. "You will have all the gunpowder you need." Li is wide-eyed; he can hardly believe it.
We see the Uliangha clan's arsenal. They're making cannons--lots of them. Gim Sae is there, inspecting and supervising. From a distance, Yun Hwe, Choi Haesan and Jang Youngsil are observing.
"The Jurchens have acquired gunpowder weapons?" The three have reported back to Sejong. They have seven large arsenals, and Ming is helping them make advanced weapons. "We must destroy the enemy's supply base," Yi Chun says. Youngsil adds, And to do that we'll need a new form of weapon. Sejong ponders what this means. "A completely new weapon?"