Post by ajk on Apr 9, 2009 16:46:23 GMT -5
Note: Hunae is being referred to as “Lady Sungdeok” in this episode, after Sungdeok Palace (the palace just outside the capital where Hunae moved after her husband Gyeongjong died). Just to keep things simpler I’ll continue to call her Hunae.
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The year 990; A Balhaean settlement in the north, by the Cheongcheon River: Balhaean refugees are hard at work on the new settlement. Suddenly we see a large group of Jurchen soldiers charging towards the scene. "Archers forward!" Gang Jo and his soldiers fire arrows into the advancing force, then attack and manage to drive them off after a typically big, messy sword-battle. Hunae is right in there in the middle of it all. As the Jurchens flee, Hunae orders that they not be pursued. We're not their enemy, she says. But the Jurchens think the Balhaeans are there to take their land, and they just keep attacking like this. Then in the distance, a Goryeo flag. Gang Gamchan! He's come to deliver an order to Hunae from the king. She's to leave this place and stop getting involved in the conflict. The king doesn't like military confrontation, he explains, and wants to deescalate the situation. Gang Jo reminds Gamchan that he was the one who wanted the Balhaens to settle here in the first place! Gamchan doesn't disagree, but what can he say, it's the king's order. But Hunae refuses! I can't let the Balhaeans die, she says (like you're going to save them youself?) Gamchan suggests that maybe she should go talk to the king before dismissing his orders. Besides, he says, "There is a situation developing that you should know about." Turns out, the king intends to install her son as a royal prince. This is an odd thing (crown princes are installed, but a regular royal prince?) and the court is buzzing about it.
In the throne room: Ministers are unanimous in resisting the king's decision. He tells them that this is only a precautionary move since he has't produced a male heir yet. You're barely over 30, they remind him, and you had a girl last year, so just keep trying. Then an interesting debate among the ministers about comparing this decision to the previous succession. Still, they oppose him, but to no avail. The king is firm: There could be chaos if something happens to me and no heir apparent exists. So Wang Song will be a royal prince, and "I will not discuss this again."
We see the boy Wang Song with Lady Yunheung; he's reading the Book of Filial Piety. Yunheung’s baby Jeong is there (obviously the king’s baby girl), tended by Escort Jo. Song’s reading inspires him to promise his piety to Yunheung, which makes her smile. Escort Jo adds that this is only right, because “she raised you when Lady Sungdeok abandoned you.” The boy leaves and Yunheung scolds Jo for even mentioning the boy's mother.
Hunae and the troops return to Myeongbok Palace in the north (the late empress dowager's palace, which Hunae inherited). The citizens are making a huge noise celebrating their return. Gamchan is puzzled by this, but Gang Jo tells him this happens all over the northern areas, because Hunae will fight to protect the northern people unlike their king. Arriving at her palace, Hunae decides to go to the capital and prepares for the journey. As she does, we're shown a series of flashbacks. First, soldiers barging into the empress hall and taking Hunae's baby from her arms. Then, a winter scene, apparently a few months later, as the still-young Hunae kneels before the king's palace as snow falls, and bitterly protests his refusal to let her see her son, as he had promised. Then, a more recent flashback of the grown-up Hunae in the very same situation--snow, kneeling before the palace, the king breaking his promise again. Later in the episode we learn (and we should have learned it here; it would have made things much clearer) that the king had promised Hunae she could see her son every three months, but that he kept changing his promise: three months became six months, then a year, then two, then three.
Gamchan has come to see Queen Hunjeong at her request. What does she want? She can't bring herself to say anything; he guesses correctly that she wants to know about Prince Gyeongjuwon. "My dear lady, you are stubborn. Little girls may have crushes on handsome older men, but it's been ten years." She's still in love with him, but he gently advises her, "It's time to let him go for your own sake. He has probably forgotten all about you. We don't even know if he is still alive." (Way to spread that sunshine, pal.)
But he's very much alive. We see him working as a humble potter in a rural village, helping produce celadon vases. One of the older villagers comes to him and tells him that a census of the village has just been ordered. Apparently their pottery is becoming very popular with the rich and powerful, and the kingdom wants to know how many potters there are in order to maximize production. The man warns the prince, It's going to be hard to hide your identity when the census happens. So apparently the villagers are giving him sanctuary.
The group of former Shillans is frustrated about the king installing the Hwangju-clan boy as prince. They complain, "He is not the same man whom we used to have complete control over years ago." And he's so mean to his sister, yet he's installing her son? It doesn’t even make sense. Seol Shinyu, understanding that the king wants a male heir, suggests getting the king another consort. Which provokes a fit of anger from Kim Wonsoong (more anger than we've ever seen from him), since his daughter is the consort who hasn't produced a prince (in other words, she hasn't delivered! ba-dum bum). You stop the boy from being installed if you don’t like it, he says angrily. "I'll see about getting my daughter to produce a son." (Now THAT I want to see.)
Later, with Foreman Jo and Jo Do, Kim considers the possibility of killing off the young prince. "I want this country in my hands," he says, which means that only my daughter's child can occupy the throne.
Hunae, Gang Gamchan and Gang Jo are leaving for capital. In the shadows, someone is watching them leave.
The king is with Choe Ryang, whom he asks for help in overcoming the Shillan-descent officials' opposition to the installation. Choe still doesn't understand his reason for doing it. The king explains, "I will not be able to father a prince." Why not? Becuase Choe Jimong predicted it three years before he died. (Oh good grief.) Flashback to Jimong giving the king the news: You'll father only daughters; so it was a good idea you spared the boy Wang Song and raised him here; but I warn you, keep the boy away from his mother because you and she "are the most extreme opposites. That polar energy can undermine your reign and threaten you life." Flashback ending, Choe flatly says, "Predictions can be wrong." Sungjong answer him, It's been nine years and just one daughter, so he must have been right. Then Choe points out that if the boy rises to the throne, he'll call his mother back. But the king isn't worried about this, because it's Lady Yunheung whome the boy knows as his mom. Then we learn that Jimong had also done a divination ritual...Another flashback: we see Choe drawing fortune-telling sticks out of a container and then foreseeing battles and bloodsed and a dying King Sungjong. The vision so frightens him that he runs out into the rainy night, panicked and desperate to inform the king. But right then and there, he collapses and dies...Flashback ending, we learn the king knows Jimong had something to tell him but he never found out what it was. Maybe, Choe says, he saw a male heir after all. The king agrees that's possible but still intends to go ahead with the installation. And I can't tell the ministers about all this, he explains. because it would lead them to want my sister daed. and he begs Choe to give the boy the same chance that Choe and the Shillans gave him when they looked past his lineage and helped make him king.
Hunae has arrived at the capital and is at Sungdeok Palace. Seo Hui, Yi Jibaek and Yi Gyeoumi inform Hunae that her son is to be installed after all--and will be named Gaeryeong after a Shillan region near Lady Yunheung's birthplace. She's miffed about the naming decision, but Seo Hui advises her, Don't get hung up on this; its just the name; the important thing is that he's going to be installed. Gamchan is there too and likewise advises her to look at the bigger picture.
The king is with Lady Yunheung; he tells her about the naming decision. Won't that hurt his mother?, she asks. It's for the best, he says. Yunheung knows about Hunae coming to the palace to see her son and being turned away, and she knows that it troubles the king terribly. I don't know why you do this, she tells him, but if making him a prince helps you feel better about it all, then you should. She's very understanding and supportive about it, considering the boy isn't her real son, and he very much appreciates that. They seem very happy together.
Evening: Hunae fears that she's about to lose her son for good despite his installation. And she despairs at his being named after another woman's home.
The next day, a surprising scene: We see Hunae enter a room to meet her son! Lady Yunheung is with him. The boy knows who she is, or at least has been told, and he greets her, albeit rather uncomfortably. (Strange, the kid looks nothing like his parents.) Yunheung leaves them alone together; she hugs him and cries, telling him how much she missed him. He's still uncomfortable and is reticent to dsay or do anything, as you might expect since we learn that it's been three years since he saw her (and may not have even remembered the last time). She's made a garment for him and tries to put it on him, but he's grown a lot and it's too small for him. Just then, the king enters. He tells Song to leave them; he goes outside where Yunheung is waiting and she takes him by the hand (seemingly against his will; he looks like he wants to go back inside even if not entirely sure why) and they walk away. Back inside, the king is mad that Hunae is seeing her son without his permission, but she gives him a mouthful about him breaking his visitation promises. Then she complains about naming him after Shilla territory and not Hwangju. Practically rolling his eyes, he answers that Taejo unified the three kingodms sixty years ago and "it's all Goryeo to me." (Good answer.) Then he warns her not to go into the northern lands and stir up trouble, while she gives him an earful about neglecting the people and having "guileful retainers." "It's as if you live for war," he says, pointing out that Goryeo is stuck in between two stronger powers and can't be recklessly aggressive. "Just stay put in Hwangju like a lady." "I don't think so." Defy the king's order, he warns, and there will be consequences; you may never see your son again.
Outside she cries a bit, but then pulls herself together to go visit Queen Mundeok. The queen is in a villa outside the palace complex. We find her in bed, apparently suffering from some unstated ailment; her daughter Sun is tending to her. (Sun is the future Queen Sunjeong, and is almost certainly the baby we saw in Mundeok’s arms in Ep6.) Hunae is concerned for the queen and wonders why she isn’t staying in the queens’ hall. Mundeok says she’s more comfortable here; the hall is “like sitting on a bed of nails.” The two women seem to have an unspoken bond forged by their common unhappy experiences as queens.
Back at Hwangju: Nighttime, and did we see two men with swords sneaking around? A weird sequence, as Escort Yun is walking in a courtyard alone and then has the wits scared out of her by Yi Jujeong (the attendant, who we learn is Sulhwa's father). He's acting weird and creepy, but he has a crush on Yun and offers her a pendant. Then a man enters the scene, and promptly falls over dead, a sword in his back. It's an attack on the palace! Sword-fighting all over the place. Cheon Hyangbi (now a grown woman) runs in to protect Hunjeong and take her to safety. But how can she, because the attackers subdue the palace guards and control the situation. They want to kidnap Hunjeong. Before they even start to look for her, Hyangbi comes out in a queen's robe, posing as Hunjeong. They assume it's her and seize her (after she puts up a bit of a sword-fight). As they leave, one masked attacker decides to take a look inside. Hearing a noise, he approaches a closet in which we see Hunjeong quivering with fear. The scene fades to black....
The next day: The young Jurchen Sa Gamun tells his leader that the mission has been accomplished: The dowager queen has been captured and a trace left behind. We see that the leader is Kim Chiyang; he answers, "Glory of the millennium will be revived if it is divine will."
Back in the capital, Hunae and Gang Jo are headed to the installation ceremony, when a frantic Yi Jujeong shows up and tells them about the attack on the palace.
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The year 990; A Balhaean settlement in the north, by the Cheongcheon River: Balhaean refugees are hard at work on the new settlement. Suddenly we see a large group of Jurchen soldiers charging towards the scene. "Archers forward!" Gang Jo and his soldiers fire arrows into the advancing force, then attack and manage to drive them off after a typically big, messy sword-battle. Hunae is right in there in the middle of it all. As the Jurchens flee, Hunae orders that they not be pursued. We're not their enemy, she says. But the Jurchens think the Balhaeans are there to take their land, and they just keep attacking like this. Then in the distance, a Goryeo flag. Gang Gamchan! He's come to deliver an order to Hunae from the king. She's to leave this place and stop getting involved in the conflict. The king doesn't like military confrontation, he explains, and wants to deescalate the situation. Gang Jo reminds Gamchan that he was the one who wanted the Balhaens to settle here in the first place! Gamchan doesn't disagree, but what can he say, it's the king's order. But Hunae refuses! I can't let the Balhaeans die, she says (like you're going to save them youself?) Gamchan suggests that maybe she should go talk to the king before dismissing his orders. Besides, he says, "There is a situation developing that you should know about." Turns out, the king intends to install her son as a royal prince. This is an odd thing (crown princes are installed, but a regular royal prince?) and the court is buzzing about it.
In the throne room: Ministers are unanimous in resisting the king's decision. He tells them that this is only a precautionary move since he has't produced a male heir yet. You're barely over 30, they remind him, and you had a girl last year, so just keep trying. Then an interesting debate among the ministers about comparing this decision to the previous succession. Still, they oppose him, but to no avail. The king is firm: There could be chaos if something happens to me and no heir apparent exists. So Wang Song will be a royal prince, and "I will not discuss this again."
We see the boy Wang Song with Lady Yunheung; he's reading the Book of Filial Piety. Yunheung’s baby Jeong is there (obviously the king’s baby girl), tended by Escort Jo. Song’s reading inspires him to promise his piety to Yunheung, which makes her smile. Escort Jo adds that this is only right, because “she raised you when Lady Sungdeok abandoned you.” The boy leaves and Yunheung scolds Jo for even mentioning the boy's mother.
Hunae and the troops return to Myeongbok Palace in the north (the late empress dowager's palace, which Hunae inherited). The citizens are making a huge noise celebrating their return. Gamchan is puzzled by this, but Gang Jo tells him this happens all over the northern areas, because Hunae will fight to protect the northern people unlike their king. Arriving at her palace, Hunae decides to go to the capital and prepares for the journey. As she does, we're shown a series of flashbacks. First, soldiers barging into the empress hall and taking Hunae's baby from her arms. Then, a winter scene, apparently a few months later, as the still-young Hunae kneels before the king's palace as snow falls, and bitterly protests his refusal to let her see her son, as he had promised. Then, a more recent flashback of the grown-up Hunae in the very same situation--snow, kneeling before the palace, the king breaking his promise again. Later in the episode we learn (and we should have learned it here; it would have made things much clearer) that the king had promised Hunae she could see her son every three months, but that he kept changing his promise: three months became six months, then a year, then two, then three.
Gamchan has come to see Queen Hunjeong at her request. What does she want? She can't bring herself to say anything; he guesses correctly that she wants to know about Prince Gyeongjuwon. "My dear lady, you are stubborn. Little girls may have crushes on handsome older men, but it's been ten years." She's still in love with him, but he gently advises her, "It's time to let him go for your own sake. He has probably forgotten all about you. We don't even know if he is still alive." (Way to spread that sunshine, pal.)
But he's very much alive. We see him working as a humble potter in a rural village, helping produce celadon vases. One of the older villagers comes to him and tells him that a census of the village has just been ordered. Apparently their pottery is becoming very popular with the rich and powerful, and the kingdom wants to know how many potters there are in order to maximize production. The man warns the prince, It's going to be hard to hide your identity when the census happens. So apparently the villagers are giving him sanctuary.
The group of former Shillans is frustrated about the king installing the Hwangju-clan boy as prince. They complain, "He is not the same man whom we used to have complete control over years ago." And he's so mean to his sister, yet he's installing her son? It doesn’t even make sense. Seol Shinyu, understanding that the king wants a male heir, suggests getting the king another consort. Which provokes a fit of anger from Kim Wonsoong (more anger than we've ever seen from him), since his daughter is the consort who hasn't produced a prince (in other words, she hasn't delivered! ba-dum bum). You stop the boy from being installed if you don’t like it, he says angrily. "I'll see about getting my daughter to produce a son." (Now THAT I want to see.)
Later, with Foreman Jo and Jo Do, Kim considers the possibility of killing off the young prince. "I want this country in my hands," he says, which means that only my daughter's child can occupy the throne.
Hunae, Gang Gamchan and Gang Jo are leaving for capital. In the shadows, someone is watching them leave.
The king is with Choe Ryang, whom he asks for help in overcoming the Shillan-descent officials' opposition to the installation. Choe still doesn't understand his reason for doing it. The king explains, "I will not be able to father a prince." Why not? Becuase Choe Jimong predicted it three years before he died. (Oh good grief.) Flashback to Jimong giving the king the news: You'll father only daughters; so it was a good idea you spared the boy Wang Song and raised him here; but I warn you, keep the boy away from his mother because you and she "are the most extreme opposites. That polar energy can undermine your reign and threaten you life." Flashback ending, Choe flatly says, "Predictions can be wrong." Sungjong answer him, It's been nine years and just one daughter, so he must have been right. Then Choe points out that if the boy rises to the throne, he'll call his mother back. But the king isn't worried about this, because it's Lady Yunheung whome the boy knows as his mom. Then we learn that Jimong had also done a divination ritual...Another flashback: we see Choe drawing fortune-telling sticks out of a container and then foreseeing battles and bloodsed and a dying King Sungjong. The vision so frightens him that he runs out into the rainy night, panicked and desperate to inform the king. But right then and there, he collapses and dies...Flashback ending, we learn the king knows Jimong had something to tell him but he never found out what it was. Maybe, Choe says, he saw a male heir after all. The king agrees that's possible but still intends to go ahead with the installation. And I can't tell the ministers about all this, he explains. because it would lead them to want my sister daed. and he begs Choe to give the boy the same chance that Choe and the Shillans gave him when they looked past his lineage and helped make him king.
Hunae has arrived at the capital and is at Sungdeok Palace. Seo Hui, Yi Jibaek and Yi Gyeoumi inform Hunae that her son is to be installed after all--and will be named Gaeryeong after a Shillan region near Lady Yunheung's birthplace. She's miffed about the naming decision, but Seo Hui advises her, Don't get hung up on this; its just the name; the important thing is that he's going to be installed. Gamchan is there too and likewise advises her to look at the bigger picture.
The king is with Lady Yunheung; he tells her about the naming decision. Won't that hurt his mother?, she asks. It's for the best, he says. Yunheung knows about Hunae coming to the palace to see her son and being turned away, and she knows that it troubles the king terribly. I don't know why you do this, she tells him, but if making him a prince helps you feel better about it all, then you should. She's very understanding and supportive about it, considering the boy isn't her real son, and he very much appreciates that. They seem very happy together.
Evening: Hunae fears that she's about to lose her son for good despite his installation. And she despairs at his being named after another woman's home.
The next day, a surprising scene: We see Hunae enter a room to meet her son! Lady Yunheung is with him. The boy knows who she is, or at least has been told, and he greets her, albeit rather uncomfortably. (Strange, the kid looks nothing like his parents.) Yunheung leaves them alone together; she hugs him and cries, telling him how much she missed him. He's still uncomfortable and is reticent to dsay or do anything, as you might expect since we learn that it's been three years since he saw her (and may not have even remembered the last time). She's made a garment for him and tries to put it on him, but he's grown a lot and it's too small for him. Just then, the king enters. He tells Song to leave them; he goes outside where Yunheung is waiting and she takes him by the hand (seemingly against his will; he looks like he wants to go back inside even if not entirely sure why) and they walk away. Back inside, the king is mad that Hunae is seeing her son without his permission, but she gives him a mouthful about him breaking his visitation promises. Then she complains about naming him after Shilla territory and not Hwangju. Practically rolling his eyes, he answers that Taejo unified the three kingodms sixty years ago and "it's all Goryeo to me." (Good answer.) Then he warns her not to go into the northern lands and stir up trouble, while she gives him an earful about neglecting the people and having "guileful retainers." "It's as if you live for war," he says, pointing out that Goryeo is stuck in between two stronger powers and can't be recklessly aggressive. "Just stay put in Hwangju like a lady." "I don't think so." Defy the king's order, he warns, and there will be consequences; you may never see your son again.
Outside she cries a bit, but then pulls herself together to go visit Queen Mundeok. The queen is in a villa outside the palace complex. We find her in bed, apparently suffering from some unstated ailment; her daughter Sun is tending to her. (Sun is the future Queen Sunjeong, and is almost certainly the baby we saw in Mundeok’s arms in Ep6.) Hunae is concerned for the queen and wonders why she isn’t staying in the queens’ hall. Mundeok says she’s more comfortable here; the hall is “like sitting on a bed of nails.” The two women seem to have an unspoken bond forged by their common unhappy experiences as queens.
Back at Hwangju: Nighttime, and did we see two men with swords sneaking around? A weird sequence, as Escort Yun is walking in a courtyard alone and then has the wits scared out of her by Yi Jujeong (the attendant, who we learn is Sulhwa's father). He's acting weird and creepy, but he has a crush on Yun and offers her a pendant. Then a man enters the scene, and promptly falls over dead, a sword in his back. It's an attack on the palace! Sword-fighting all over the place. Cheon Hyangbi (now a grown woman) runs in to protect Hunjeong and take her to safety. But how can she, because the attackers subdue the palace guards and control the situation. They want to kidnap Hunjeong. Before they even start to look for her, Hyangbi comes out in a queen's robe, posing as Hunjeong. They assume it's her and seize her (after she puts up a bit of a sword-fight). As they leave, one masked attacker decides to take a look inside. Hearing a noise, he approaches a closet in which we see Hunjeong quivering with fear. The scene fades to black....
The next day: The young Jurchen Sa Gamun tells his leader that the mission has been accomplished: The dowager queen has been captured and a trace left behind. We see that the leader is Kim Chiyang; he answers, "Glory of the millennium will be revived if it is divine will."
Back in the capital, Hunae and Gang Jo are headed to the installation ceremony, when a frantic Yi Jujeong shows up and tells them about the attack on the palace.
