Post by ajk on Jun 17, 2009 14:44:17 GMT -5
The Khitan empress dowager Xiao asks Hunae her name, but Hunae won't even answer the question. Xiao is aware of Hunae's concern for Chiyang and calmly tells her, "State your name or I'll chop your companion to pieces." Hwangbo Su, Hunae answers. Xiao is filled in on Hunae's royal status, and is surprised that someone like her would be out fighting in a war. (Join the club, sister.) She orders that Hunae be cleaned up and given fresh clothes.
Chiyang is still unconscious; his wounds are being treated by Khitan attendants.
Xiao Sunning is begging the empress dowager's forgiveness for the result of the war. Especially the loss of territory. Give me death, he says, to which she answers, "And what good would that do? I'll be left with useless meat." (Good one!) But at least Goryeo will be severing ties with Song, so it's not a total loss, and it's enough for her to decide not to pursue it any further. Which makes Sunning happy, of course. Then he suggests to her the possibility of trying to trade Hunae to get the ceded territory back.
Gang Jo is drunk again. Hyangbi comes upon him and tries to talk some sense into him. We're all grieving, she says, but you're taking it way too hard. Gang talks passionately about his dedication to Hunae and how much he valued simply serving her. "Without her, I have no reason to live." It's almost a little creepy, talking like he's a cult member, but it certainly shows the depth of his dedication to her and explains his present messed-up state.
Hunae refuses to put on the clothes that are being offered to her. An aggressive female attendant named Hyeolmae enters and demands that Hunae dress. Next we see Hunae, dressed, taken to a dining room where the empress dowager is waiting. "You may be a prisoner," Xiao says to Hunae, "but you're royalty, so I intend to treat you as such." And she has a nice meal there for her. Hunae sits and starts to eat, but then Xiao drops the hammer: I want you to write a letter to your brother the king, urging Goryeo to surrender and become a vassalage of Liao (Khitan). Which of course Hunae won't do. And then Hunae grabs a kitchen cleaver and lunges for Xiao, but is subdued by attendants as Xiao continues to eat like nothing happened. (Very stupid on Hunae's part. No chance of success and needlessly antagonized her captors.)
Hunae is removed forcibly and taken outside into a courtyard where a lot of attendants are waiting. Xiao follows and sits on a throne. It looks a bit like an interrogation is going to happen. But no, it will be a duel. "If you defeat my subordinate in a duel, I will set you and your subordinate free. But if you lose, you will both die." Hunae is given a sword--but it's a curved sword, not the kind she's used to. And she has to face one of the female attendants, armed with a mean-looking whip and plenty of skill with it. Hunae charges the attendant, who cracks her whip and sends Hunae flying backwards (thereby giving Newton's Third Law a whipping as well. Seriously, it looked ridiculous). After some highly choreographed maneuvering, the attendant whips the sword out of Hunae's hand, grabs it and puts it to her throat as Xiao watches with an evil-looking leer. But Hunae isn't killed. (Of course they wouldn't kill such a valuable hostage, at least not at this point. This was a silly, pointless scene.)
Yelu Chu enters the room where Chiyang is sleeping, just as one of the female attendants is about to kill Chiyang with a dagger. Put it away, Chu says; that's the empress dowager's order.
Hunae is thrown into a jail cell by Yelu Wuji. In the process she gives him some backtalk and makes a remark about taking out his other eye. Obviously he didn't remember who she was--until now. He has a flashback (to the market scene in Ep2) and now he remembers. Wuji throttles her by the neck, lifts her up off the ground, and just about strangles her (although it's totally unconvincing because her face never turns color). But the attendant with the whip manages to pull him off her by wrapping the whip around his own neck. (And yet again we're annoyed, this time by Hunae's stupid habit of needlessly antagonizing people. Why would you want to jog the memory of a guy like Wuji? Too many times in this series she's shown herself to be rash and foolish.)
Nighttime: Gang Jo is drunk yet again.
The king can't sleep. He had a troubling dream about his grandmother being angry with him for how he's treated his sisters. He tells Munhwa this, and she suggests a trip to Myeongbok Palace. He hasn't been there in many years, but it's where he grew up and it meant a lot to him. And she says, take Gaeryeong with you; it might ease his grief to go there.
The king goes to see Gaeryeong, and catches him reading something. It's his mother's last letter to him. Oh good grief, not this again. The boy begs the king to let him keep the letter...and the king puts it gently back into his hands. "How could I take away your mother's last words to you?" He apologizes to the boy for keeping him from his mother. A lot of good that does now, but at least he's sincere. And he invites him to go to Myeongbok to go pray for Hunae's return.
Sa Illa tells Sa Gamun that she wants to go into Khitan territory to search for Chiyang. The border is tightly controlled now and there's little chance of finding him there, but she wants to try.
As Chiyang sleeps...We see a monk talking to two boys. One is named Kim Chiyang and the other is named Kim Hang. I want you two to switch names, he tells them. Why? Because it's Buddha's will; that's his only explanation. Even when you're questioned, he tells them, you only speak your new names. Then a different scene, with the original Kim Chiyang/now Kim Hang kneeling at the feet of a group of soldiers. Asked his name, Chiyang says he's Kim Hang, and is promptly killed by the head soldier. "The seed of trouble has been eliminated," the soldier tells his subordinates (whatever that means). The soldiers leave and the other boy emerges from hiding; he goes to the dead boy and weeps over him. Then the Jurchen chief happens on the scene. This dovetails with the flashback in Ep12...Then a scene from the very recent past, a scene we haven't seen before. Chiyang is together with his chief and Sa Illa and Sa Gamun. Oddly, the chief tells Chiyang, "You are our lord and master." And finally--finally--we get the explanation for all of the secrecy and mystery surrounding Chiyang.
The chief provides it: Chiyang, a/k/a Kim Hang, is the son of Kim Joon and the grandson of Kim Il, who was known to the world as Crown Prince Ma-ui of Shilla. Back when Shilla's final king surrendered to Taejo/Wang Guhn and the unified kingdom of Goryeo was founded, Ma-ui didn't accept the surrender and went into hiding near Injeon. There he secretly founded an army to attempt to revive Shilla. Ma-ui later left the army to his son, and ventured north into Jurchen territory to try to expand his power. But he got sick and died there. Later, former Shillans who were in positions of influence in the new Goryeo found out about the secret army. They had it massacred and wiped out (because they liked things as they were and didn't want Shilla revived). Chiyang's mother left Chiyang at Hangae Temple and then was killed by an arrow while fleeing, apparently part of this massacre (we saw this in flashback in Ep11). Those same Shillans later ordered the death of the boy believed to be Chiyang (we learned in Ep19 that it was Choe Sum's father who was responsible for this). And it turns out that there are Shillan descendants living now in Jurchen territory. So it's your mission, the chief tells Chiyang, to revive Shilla!
...This has all been going through Chiyang's head as he sleeps, and he awakens with a jolt, not knowing where he is. He's brought before the empress dowager, who questions him and then tells him, You'd better convince Hunae to write that surrender letter or you'll both be killed. Then he's taken to the jail and thrown into Hunae's cell. Wuji follows him in, and menaces Hunae, swearing that he'll be the one to kill her and he'll carve out both of her eyes while he's at it.
A state meeting: Now that the war is over, Sungjong is announcing new administrative reforms. Gamchan is promoted to be first secretary to Seo Hui in the Supreme Council. Yi Jibaek is now Minister of Punishment; Choe Sum is demoted from that post, to become an associate royal undersecretary; and the other Shillans are also reassigned--all sounding like demotions. And also, Seo Hui gets a military award and a fiefdom, and Gamchan gets a smaller fiefdom. Wonsoong is particularly upset, because he's been reassigned to the Office of Observatory. Wouldn't I be better off in a finance position?, he asks the king; I don't know anything about the stars. Sunjong's response: "Study." And he scolds Wonsoong for his backtalk.
Later, Park Yangyu and the two Hans are talking; they're surprised by the extent of the hit that the Shillans took. Park says it's time to stop playing both sides of the fence; We've been too worried about our own political survival and not worried enough about the future of the country. "We have to start focusing on strengthening the country," he tells them. (It sounds from their conversation like these three are neither northerners nor Shillans. Maybe they're from Baekje? If anybody knows, please tell me because I'd like to get the clans notated in the character roster.)
Wonsoong, with his men, comes to Choe Sum's home to try to make peace. "I'm sorry for everything," he says. Choe is understandably cynical: "What are you trying to set us up for this time?" (Remember, Wonsoong had tried to frame the other Shillans and it almost got them all executed.) But Wonsoong says they're losing the country to the northerners and it's time to join hands again and prevent that. Choe is still suspicious and distrusting. Wonsoong has brought "precious goods" to show his sincerity, and he's even willing to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness. Never mind, Choe says, I'll try to forgive you. But only if you talk to your daughter and try to get us back in the king's favor. Wonsoong is ecstatic.
The King arrives at Myeongbok Palace, for the first time in twelve years. Some touching moments as he remembers and greets steward Yi and escort Yun, who helped raise him, and Princess Sun and the others present. He's is surprised to see Sa Gamun and Sa Illa there, recognizing them as Jurchens. Realizing that they must be Chiyang's subordinates, he speaks kindly to them too. Then he enters his ancestral shrine--we haven't seen this room in a long, long time--and stands before the portraits of his grandmother, King Gyeongjong, and his sister Seol. As he reflects, we see flashbacks of his final encounters with all three; all were heartless, cold and most unpleasant. He silently asks them for their forgiveness.
Later, the king confronts Gang Jo, who was offered a position as a general in the military but defied the king and refused it. The king actually wants Gang Jo to assume the leadership of Myeongbok Palace, but that requires an official position. Seo Hui and Gamchan also urge him to accept the offer, but he refuses. He won't take Hunae's place, certainly not while her whereabouts are still a mystery. "Give me death instead." Well they're not gonna do THAT, but they can't budge him.
The search for Hunae is resuming. Dae Dosu has led his officers and soldiers out into the countryside. Yi Hyunoon is with them, now a subordinate and a whiny one at that. He's being pushed around some by his now-superior officers, both verbally and physically. It seems a bit much, even if Hyunoon was a terrible commander.
Chiyang is trying to convince Hunae to write the letter. It will buy time for us, he says, to figure out an escape. But she won't do it, even if it means never seeing her son again. She's afraid that it might frighten the king into surrendering the territory they've gained, and she won't allow that to happen.
Narration gives us some background on the Khitan empress dowager Xiao: Her name is Xiao Chuo; she's the daughter of Siwen, the Prime Minister of Liao; she's the wife of emperor Jingzong of Liao (a/k/a Yelu Xian); she's the mother of emperor Shengzong of Liao (a/k/a Yelu Long). And we're told that just like Hunae, her husband died as a young woman and she ended up serving as regent for her young son (which is true; I looked into it. She even commanded her own 10,000-man cavalry army!).
(A rare but hilarious typo in the subtitles as we're told that in some ways Xiao is "just like our heroine Empress Cheonchu." Except it wasn't "heroine," it was "heroin." Spell-checking software strikes again.)
Back in the cell, Hunae remembers the incident in the hut: "What were you trying to say that day?", she asks Chiyang. Something about your name? But Chiyang doesn't want to tell her any more and he hedges. "Is it some kind of secret?" No. "Then what?" Forgive me, he says, but I can't tell you. She keeps pressing him, so he comes up with another secret to give up instead. "Actually...I am...in love with you."
Chiyang is still unconscious; his wounds are being treated by Khitan attendants.
Xiao Sunning is begging the empress dowager's forgiveness for the result of the war. Especially the loss of territory. Give me death, he says, to which she answers, "And what good would that do? I'll be left with useless meat." (Good one!) But at least Goryeo will be severing ties with Song, so it's not a total loss, and it's enough for her to decide not to pursue it any further. Which makes Sunning happy, of course. Then he suggests to her the possibility of trying to trade Hunae to get the ceded territory back.
Gang Jo is drunk again. Hyangbi comes upon him and tries to talk some sense into him. We're all grieving, she says, but you're taking it way too hard. Gang talks passionately about his dedication to Hunae and how much he valued simply serving her. "Without her, I have no reason to live." It's almost a little creepy, talking like he's a cult member, but it certainly shows the depth of his dedication to her and explains his present messed-up state.
Hunae refuses to put on the clothes that are being offered to her. An aggressive female attendant named Hyeolmae enters and demands that Hunae dress. Next we see Hunae, dressed, taken to a dining room where the empress dowager is waiting. "You may be a prisoner," Xiao says to Hunae, "but you're royalty, so I intend to treat you as such." And she has a nice meal there for her. Hunae sits and starts to eat, but then Xiao drops the hammer: I want you to write a letter to your brother the king, urging Goryeo to surrender and become a vassalage of Liao (Khitan). Which of course Hunae won't do. And then Hunae grabs a kitchen cleaver and lunges for Xiao, but is subdued by attendants as Xiao continues to eat like nothing happened. (Very stupid on Hunae's part. No chance of success and needlessly antagonized her captors.)
Hunae is removed forcibly and taken outside into a courtyard where a lot of attendants are waiting. Xiao follows and sits on a throne. It looks a bit like an interrogation is going to happen. But no, it will be a duel. "If you defeat my subordinate in a duel, I will set you and your subordinate free. But if you lose, you will both die." Hunae is given a sword--but it's a curved sword, not the kind she's used to. And she has to face one of the female attendants, armed with a mean-looking whip and plenty of skill with it. Hunae charges the attendant, who cracks her whip and sends Hunae flying backwards (thereby giving Newton's Third Law a whipping as well. Seriously, it looked ridiculous). After some highly choreographed maneuvering, the attendant whips the sword out of Hunae's hand, grabs it and puts it to her throat as Xiao watches with an evil-looking leer. But Hunae isn't killed. (Of course they wouldn't kill such a valuable hostage, at least not at this point. This was a silly, pointless scene.)
Yelu Chu enters the room where Chiyang is sleeping, just as one of the female attendants is about to kill Chiyang with a dagger. Put it away, Chu says; that's the empress dowager's order.
Hunae is thrown into a jail cell by Yelu Wuji. In the process she gives him some backtalk and makes a remark about taking out his other eye. Obviously he didn't remember who she was--until now. He has a flashback (to the market scene in Ep2) and now he remembers. Wuji throttles her by the neck, lifts her up off the ground, and just about strangles her (although it's totally unconvincing because her face never turns color). But the attendant with the whip manages to pull him off her by wrapping the whip around his own neck. (And yet again we're annoyed, this time by Hunae's stupid habit of needlessly antagonizing people. Why would you want to jog the memory of a guy like Wuji? Too many times in this series she's shown herself to be rash and foolish.)
Nighttime: Gang Jo is drunk yet again.
The king can't sleep. He had a troubling dream about his grandmother being angry with him for how he's treated his sisters. He tells Munhwa this, and she suggests a trip to Myeongbok Palace. He hasn't been there in many years, but it's where he grew up and it meant a lot to him. And she says, take Gaeryeong with you; it might ease his grief to go there.
The king goes to see Gaeryeong, and catches him reading something. It's his mother's last letter to him. Oh good grief, not this again. The boy begs the king to let him keep the letter...and the king puts it gently back into his hands. "How could I take away your mother's last words to you?" He apologizes to the boy for keeping him from his mother. A lot of good that does now, but at least he's sincere. And he invites him to go to Myeongbok to go pray for Hunae's return.
Sa Illa tells Sa Gamun that she wants to go into Khitan territory to search for Chiyang. The border is tightly controlled now and there's little chance of finding him there, but she wants to try.
As Chiyang sleeps...We see a monk talking to two boys. One is named Kim Chiyang and the other is named Kim Hang. I want you two to switch names, he tells them. Why? Because it's Buddha's will; that's his only explanation. Even when you're questioned, he tells them, you only speak your new names. Then a different scene, with the original Kim Chiyang/now Kim Hang kneeling at the feet of a group of soldiers. Asked his name, Chiyang says he's Kim Hang, and is promptly killed by the head soldier. "The seed of trouble has been eliminated," the soldier tells his subordinates (whatever that means). The soldiers leave and the other boy emerges from hiding; he goes to the dead boy and weeps over him. Then the Jurchen chief happens on the scene. This dovetails with the flashback in Ep12...Then a scene from the very recent past, a scene we haven't seen before. Chiyang is together with his chief and Sa Illa and Sa Gamun. Oddly, the chief tells Chiyang, "You are our lord and master." And finally--finally--we get the explanation for all of the secrecy and mystery surrounding Chiyang.
The chief provides it: Chiyang, a/k/a Kim Hang, is the son of Kim Joon and the grandson of Kim Il, who was known to the world as Crown Prince Ma-ui of Shilla. Back when Shilla's final king surrendered to Taejo/Wang Guhn and the unified kingdom of Goryeo was founded, Ma-ui didn't accept the surrender and went into hiding near Injeon. There he secretly founded an army to attempt to revive Shilla. Ma-ui later left the army to his son, and ventured north into Jurchen territory to try to expand his power. But he got sick and died there. Later, former Shillans who were in positions of influence in the new Goryeo found out about the secret army. They had it massacred and wiped out (because they liked things as they were and didn't want Shilla revived). Chiyang's mother left Chiyang at Hangae Temple and then was killed by an arrow while fleeing, apparently part of this massacre (we saw this in flashback in Ep11). Those same Shillans later ordered the death of the boy believed to be Chiyang (we learned in Ep19 that it was Choe Sum's father who was responsible for this). And it turns out that there are Shillan descendants living now in Jurchen territory. So it's your mission, the chief tells Chiyang, to revive Shilla!
...This has all been going through Chiyang's head as he sleeps, and he awakens with a jolt, not knowing where he is. He's brought before the empress dowager, who questions him and then tells him, You'd better convince Hunae to write that surrender letter or you'll both be killed. Then he's taken to the jail and thrown into Hunae's cell. Wuji follows him in, and menaces Hunae, swearing that he'll be the one to kill her and he'll carve out both of her eyes while he's at it.
A state meeting: Now that the war is over, Sungjong is announcing new administrative reforms. Gamchan is promoted to be first secretary to Seo Hui in the Supreme Council. Yi Jibaek is now Minister of Punishment; Choe Sum is demoted from that post, to become an associate royal undersecretary; and the other Shillans are also reassigned--all sounding like demotions. And also, Seo Hui gets a military award and a fiefdom, and Gamchan gets a smaller fiefdom. Wonsoong is particularly upset, because he's been reassigned to the Office of Observatory. Wouldn't I be better off in a finance position?, he asks the king; I don't know anything about the stars. Sunjong's response: "Study." And he scolds Wonsoong for his backtalk.
Later, Park Yangyu and the two Hans are talking; they're surprised by the extent of the hit that the Shillans took. Park says it's time to stop playing both sides of the fence; We've been too worried about our own political survival and not worried enough about the future of the country. "We have to start focusing on strengthening the country," he tells them. (It sounds from their conversation like these three are neither northerners nor Shillans. Maybe they're from Baekje? If anybody knows, please tell me because I'd like to get the clans notated in the character roster.)
Wonsoong, with his men, comes to Choe Sum's home to try to make peace. "I'm sorry for everything," he says. Choe is understandably cynical: "What are you trying to set us up for this time?" (Remember, Wonsoong had tried to frame the other Shillans and it almost got them all executed.) But Wonsoong says they're losing the country to the northerners and it's time to join hands again and prevent that. Choe is still suspicious and distrusting. Wonsoong has brought "precious goods" to show his sincerity, and he's even willing to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness. Never mind, Choe says, I'll try to forgive you. But only if you talk to your daughter and try to get us back in the king's favor. Wonsoong is ecstatic.
The King arrives at Myeongbok Palace, for the first time in twelve years. Some touching moments as he remembers and greets steward Yi and escort Yun, who helped raise him, and Princess Sun and the others present. He's is surprised to see Sa Gamun and Sa Illa there, recognizing them as Jurchens. Realizing that they must be Chiyang's subordinates, he speaks kindly to them too. Then he enters his ancestral shrine--we haven't seen this room in a long, long time--and stands before the portraits of his grandmother, King Gyeongjong, and his sister Seol. As he reflects, we see flashbacks of his final encounters with all three; all were heartless, cold and most unpleasant. He silently asks them for their forgiveness.
Later, the king confronts Gang Jo, who was offered a position as a general in the military but defied the king and refused it. The king actually wants Gang Jo to assume the leadership of Myeongbok Palace, but that requires an official position. Seo Hui and Gamchan also urge him to accept the offer, but he refuses. He won't take Hunae's place, certainly not while her whereabouts are still a mystery. "Give me death instead." Well they're not gonna do THAT, but they can't budge him.
The search for Hunae is resuming. Dae Dosu has led his officers and soldiers out into the countryside. Yi Hyunoon is with them, now a subordinate and a whiny one at that. He's being pushed around some by his now-superior officers, both verbally and physically. It seems a bit much, even if Hyunoon was a terrible commander.
Chiyang is trying to convince Hunae to write the letter. It will buy time for us, he says, to figure out an escape. But she won't do it, even if it means never seeing her son again. She's afraid that it might frighten the king into surrendering the territory they've gained, and she won't allow that to happen.
Narration gives us some background on the Khitan empress dowager Xiao: Her name is Xiao Chuo; she's the daughter of Siwen, the Prime Minister of Liao; she's the wife of emperor Jingzong of Liao (a/k/a Yelu Xian); she's the mother of emperor Shengzong of Liao (a/k/a Yelu Long). And we're told that just like Hunae, her husband died as a young woman and she ended up serving as regent for her young son (which is true; I looked into it. She even commanded her own 10,000-man cavalry army!).
(A rare but hilarious typo in the subtitles as we're told that in some ways Xiao is "just like our heroine Empress Cheonchu." Except it wasn't "heroine," it was "heroin." Spell-checking software strikes again.)
Back in the cell, Hunae remembers the incident in the hut: "What were you trying to say that day?", she asks Chiyang. Something about your name? But Chiyang doesn't want to tell her any more and he hedges. "Is it some kind of secret?" No. "Then what?" Forgive me, he says, but I can't tell you. She keeps pressing him, so he comes up with another secret to give up instead. "Actually...I am...in love with you."
