Post by ajk on Jan 12, 2013 0:36:45 GMT -5
"Chunchu did WHAT now?" Seolwon finds out from Seokpum about Chunchu taking his granddaughter to see the king. Bojong is there too, and Seokpum swallows hard and tells him about the marriage.
And here's the happy couple now, leaving the palace...and running right into Deokman.
Deokman takes the twerp inside--her home, I think--and sits him down. She isn't too happy and wants to talk to him, but he really has no interest. "I'm not Mishil," he says with an almost flippant lack of humility; "I don't need the military and the Hwarang. And I don't need to make a mock stone tablet and an eclipse like you. All I need is my wits and flair for words. A word from me and the worker ants scurried in every direction." Showing no reaction, Deokman simply offers to him that if he should fail, she'll be there for him. He almost laughs at the idea that he doesn't have the situation well in hand, but he agrees to call on her if he needs her.
Boryang is waiting for her manly hubby outside...and Seolwon and Bojong catch up to her. They arrive just as Chunchu steps back outside. Without hesitation he addresses Bojong as "father-in-law" and offers a sly apology for his and Boryang's "impulsiveness" in getting married. Bojong rolls his eyes in disbelief.
Now Seolwon and Bojong are talking to Sejong and Hajong, explaining themselves and asking forgiveness for the ugly confrontation (in the previous episode) and the unfounded accusations about Boryang's kidnapping. But Sejong and Hajong aren't in a forgiving mood; they glare angrily and walk away...
...They go back home, furious and fearful of their family's future. Misaeng is there too; fortunately he's staying calmer. But he isn't happy with Chunchu either (especially considering how much time he spent entertaining him). Surprisingly, Sejong still holds Seolwon responsible for the mess, but Misaeng has thought it through already and says "Definitely not." Then he heads off to have a word with Chunchu. But through all of this, where the heck is Mishil?
She's not in the palace, as Seolwon and Bojong are now told. Seolwon's first impulse is to send Seokpum, Dukchung and Bakui and their Hwarang to go find her. Then he thinks the better of it, and tells them to stand ready for orders right here. And he turns to Santak the annoying Hwarang and tells HIM to take some trainees and go find Mishil! That doesn't seem like thinking the better of anything, does it? But Santak is eager to do it, and the Hwarang head out--just as Misaeng walks in. He hasn't found Mishil either. What gives? "Looking back over her life," Seolwon observes, "Mishil may be starting to doubt herself." Without explaining what might be causing Mishil to be looking back like that, he says, "I'm concerned, and a little anxious." He does seem to know how she ticks, doesn't he....
The king and queen, Seohyeon and Manmyeong and Yongchun, are discussing Chunchu's supposed triumph in "using" Mishil. And how his marriage has created friction between Sejong and Seolwon. But they don't think that Mishil was really duped by any of it, and they're more baffled by Mishil not being more of a presence right now. "I can't help but think Mishil isn't quite herself," Jinpyeong says.
"Chunchu's full of himself now." Yes he is. Deokman is talking to Yushin, Alcheon and Wolya. But Yushin has no doubt that Mishil knows exactly what he's done, and considering how high a value she puts on loyalty, well...he doesn't finish the thought, but the twerp could be in big trouble eventually. But for now, if Mishil isn't around, is it time for Deokman to try to take advantage of the dissension in the cabal? Not just yet; they want to know what's happened to Mishil first.
Outside, Alcheon and Wolya send some of their Hwarang to look for Mishil. But where's Jukbang?
Uh-oh...remember he said he was going to try to get to Chunchu? Well look here, he just walks right into the room where Chunchu is. And to his great surprise, Chunchu receives him warmly and orders tea brought to him. "It's all your doing," he tells a baffled Jukbang. "I'd never have thought of it without you." Really? Jukbang is there to talk him out of his big plot, and tentatively starts to try, but Chunchu waves him off and says they can talk about that stuff later...and then puts a bag of money into Jukbang's hand. "I'd like to know what others think of this business." Jukbang looks at the bag and gulps...and then with much difficulty offers the bag back! "Just don't do anything to hurt the princess," he says, showing unusual backbone for him. But Chunchu again tells him that You were the reason I came up with my plan. It makes Jukbang squirm in horror, but Chunchu says, "At this point you might as well join me, don't you think?"
Now we see Jukbang leaving. He looks stunned, and he still has the bag of money in his hands. And he's angry with himself, muttering about "blabbing and blabbing." So much for backbone. "What's the power he has over me?", Jukbang wonders to himself. But just as he leaves, there's Misaeng headed inside. Godo is following Misaeng, and startles a guilty-looking Jukbang.
Now it's Misaeng talking to the twerp, about his new marriage. But Chunchu would rather talk about something else: his mother's murder! Not a subject Misaeng wants to revisit, for obvious reasons. "I graciously forgave Daenambo," Chunchu says; "So tell me, how will YOU repay me for my kindness?" Wow, talk about playing a card. He's got Misaeng by the cojones on this one, doesn't he. For once, Misaeng is at a loss for words.
As Jukbang and Godo talk, we learn that all of the newest Hwarang trainees are Gayans from Amnyang, and are present in all ten of the capital guard corps. And with Wolya in a high Hwarang position....
Now it's Misaeng leaving Chunchu's building, looking just as dazed as Jukbang did...but he's scared. And charges away to go look for Daenambo.
Sejong is with Piltan, who assures him that his father (the military leader) is behind him, "whatever it takes." Sejong asks him to go back to his father again, to discuss something important.
Now Piltan is with Ho Jae; tells him he's headed to see his father and then adds that "something serious" may happen in the capital. Just then Seokpum enters, here to see Jo Jae; excuses himself and leaves, rather uncomfortably. Odd scene.
Daenambo is supervising Hwarang training. Misaeng finds him. "Chunchu planned the whole thing," he says in a troubled gasp; "we've been suckered. How could I not see it coming?" And still no sign of Mishil. Daenambo has heard from one of the maids that Mishil "has been acting strangely." Yes she has. "Sleeping all day...though she's not sick." Which reminds Misaeng of what Seolwon told him earlier, about how Mishil may be looking back on her life with doubts or regrets. And that instantly turns the light bulb on--he knows where she went. "When she was banished from the capital she went there to nurse her grudge," he says. "After we gave Jinji the boot, she went there too." Okay, so where?
A Hwarang from amidst a group headed somewhere slips a note to Jukbang and Godo, who are dressed in plainclothes and low-brimmed hats. Jukbang reads it and they rush off to see Deokman.
Deokman is outside just staring off into the distance. "I trusted Mishil," she tells Yushin. As in, she could always trust Mishil to be the way she was. But now, letting Chunchu worm his way by her--this isn't like her. "Mishil has changed somehow," Deokman believes.
At last, there's Mishil...Still walking through the countryside with Bidam and holding his hand. Finally they arrive at a small building--a fancy building, but size-wise it's barely more than a small sheltered hut, if that. She stares out at the countryside. "Isn't it lovely?", she says. "I come here when I need to think." Already she starts to look visibly rejuvenated a little, just by being there.
Jukbang and Godo reach Deokman and tell her where Mishil is. (So apparently that note came from one of those new Gayan trainees who was in that group headed out to search for Mishil.) "Mount Oji, Haun Valley. The Gaon Shrine." (From what I can gather, this is the modern-day Namsan, a small mountain in Gyeongju National Park. This would have been very near to Seorabeol, so not implausible at all for Mishil to walk there. Not quickly, but she could get there.) "We've got to go," Deokman says.
"No kidding--my master cried like a baby because the training was hard?" This just gets stranger by the minute. Now Mishil and Bidam are sitting at a small table in front of the hut, and Mishil is telling Bidam old stories about Munno. And Bidam is loving it. She tells him that Bidam once "set a snake loose on his teacher, Gochilbu." Chilsuk is standing there silently nearby, doing his job of keeping guard (but who knows what must be running through his head as he listens to the conversation.) "I had the king's favor," Mishil explains, "so Gochilbu treated me fairly. Seolwon had an artistic side. He'd organize excursions to the country with other Hwarang. He was above the clouds, it seemed. We nicknamed him 'cloudwalker.'" Munno, well, they simply called him "'Guardian.' Eternal guard over Shilla." Bidam smiles at that...and then ventures, "And you?" Whatever nickname she may have had, she doesn't spill it. She offers only, "With the three of us the king swore he could conquer the world. He forgave our many faults." Okay, but Bidam wants to know her nickname and presses again. And she answers him. "King's bane." As in, her beauty could take down a king or a nation. Or as she puts it, "that my looks would be the end of Shilla someday." It was the Hwarang who gave her this nickname, she says. "They meant it as a warning to the king." Did she mind it? She stares into the distance, looking almost amused by it, apparently not really minding it but now starting to wonder, "Is that when my shameful dream of being queen was born?" Her speaking the word "shameful" is stunning. That she would characterize it like that, and even more so that she would speak of it that way openly now. It surprises Bidam, too.
"When Piltan left Sejong he said something doesn't bode well for the capital." Seokpum has reported this to Seolwon, and adds that Piltan then went to see his father--now identified as Jujin, Vice Marshal of Sangju. He commands 5000 men, which Bojong rightly wonders about a coup. The possibility concerns Seolwon. "How did things come to this?" Bojong wonders if their family should get on board with Chunchu right now to protect themselves...but Seolwon says it's too late; Sangju is so close to the capital that whatever is going to happen will happen too quickly for that. And Seolwon's own capital troops? "Absolutely not. That would make me the leader of a mutiny." Seolwon is confident that Mishil will settle everything down, and they just have to hold out until she returns. But for the moment, he wants Dukchung and Bakui and their Hwarang summoned...
...a development that Hajong finds out about, and he goes running in a panic to report to his father. "They figured Piltan's going to see his daddy so they're gonna hit us first!" Piltan's dad, he's a day or so away from the capital, so they're defenseless for a day at least. Still, Sejong has confidence that Seolwon won't use capital troops and start an all-out civil war. Hajong scurries off to find Chunchu.
"But...do we dare?" Bojong confronts his four elite Hwarang allies. Three are worried. Seokpum alone says, "I'll do it." And then reluctantly the other three get on board.
Hajong is before Ho Jae and Wang Yun and their men. "Mobilize your men to protect our house," Hajong tells the two leaders. Now a male attendant comes running in, obviously with bad news for Hajong....
Sejong is startled by five elite Hwarang barging in on him unannounced. "We mean you no harm, but you brought this on yourself," they tell him. And with an uncharacteristic (and unattractive) smirk on his face, Bojong orders Sejong dragged away! Which the other Hwarang proceed to do.
"They got my daddy?!" Hajong is half melting down on the spot. And he doesn't have enough men on his side to confront all those Hwarang Seolwon has. But wait a minute--"Was Seolwon with them?" No he wasn't. You don't think....
Yeah, you guessed it. As Sejong's kidnappers head for home--at least they put Sejong in a gama...tied him up, but he's in a gama--Santak the annoying Hwarang runs up to Bojong with a horrified look on his face. Seolwon's been snatched too!
Evening: Seolwon is tied up and sitting calmly in a shed somewhere. Hajong has a sword to his throat. Seolwon is unapologetic for kidnapping Sejong--it was the only way to protect his family's interests, he says, with things spiraling out of control--but at the same time he insists to Hajong that "Chunchu has suckered us all" and that Hajong needs to realize it. Hajong doesn't buy it. "That smarmy kid?" But Seolwon presses him. "Do you imagine Mishil would let things get this out of hand?" Well that certainly hits home; suddenly Hajong's swagger is gone.
Hey, it's Yeom Jong. He's with Chunchu. "So far so good," he says, as in, they had planned to get Sejong and Seolwon at each other's throats...but Yeom Jong can't understand why Mishil isn't doing anything. The twerp is convinced that eventually she'll support Seolwon and that she has no other choice. And then utters the sentence..."People overestimate Mishil, I think." Yeom Jong rightly warns the twerp not to overestimate her, but Chunchu isn't concerned. "I see her for what she is: a clever bureaucrat doing her job, nothing more." Yeom Jong can only stare at him with concern.
Now it's evening; mother and son have been talking for quite a while. "I was a woman with no purpose," Mishil says. "A queen? What's a queen? Some man's wife. What good is that?" She laughs. "I flew in the face of the times. I abandoned my son. I left him. Just to be queen." This is extraordinary, what we're hearing...and it gets Bidam to admit something: "I think you're remarkable." And says he can understand how her dream of being queen led her to act as she did. "Shameful or noble...dreams do that. They cost you everything." Mishil turns and looks at him, and says, "Thank you for understanding." Not in a wracked-with-guilt way, just matter-of-factly, but still...Then she asks him, "Why do you support Deokman? She's not right for you?" Now it's Bidam looking off into the distance. "I'm a kind of duckling, I suppose." Uh-oh...is the weird guy back? "Ducklings follow the first one they see after they hatch."
At the other side of the building, Daenambo has arrived. Chilsuk receives him and tells him Mishil wants him to wait. He's brought a letter, presumably from Misaeng, and tries to tell Chilsuk about Sejong and Seolwon, but Chilsuk waves him off.
Bidam thinks back to Munno's dying words to him. About how Bidam's helping Deokman, without knowing who she was, well, "She brought out your better side." As he stares vacantly, Mishil looks at him. "You're in love," she surmises. He doesn't admit to it, or even seem convinced of it. But Mishil adds, "Men who love women and follow them from afar...make me want to crush them underfoot." Ah, there's the Mishil we know and love. Bidam challenges her--Suppose I'm helping fulfill my own dreams? He talks about the geographical survey, and the idea of unifying the Three Kingdoms. Unification means a lot to Deokman, he says, "and I'd get to have my name remembered for a thousand years." Mishil smiles at him as he continues. "Munno swore that the name of the man who unifies our country will go down in history. A dream like that is noble, don't you think? And women find a man with that kind of dream VERY interesting." Well, you can make a good argument that it's not so much noble as it is vain...but whatever...Now he stares at her, all business, and says, "What do you say you toss aside your tawdry little dream?" She leans forward and asks, "Why?" His unflinching answer: "For me." Looking amused, she tells him, "No, thank you." Why not? "Admitting my life's dream is shameful isn't the same as giving up." So? "I'll just start over. That's how I am." Now what does THAT mean? As she looks at him, supremely satisfied with herself, we're left to try to make sense of that.
Yongchun and Imjong report to the king about the Sejong/Seolwon drama. Sohwa is there too, and the king asks her where Deokman is...and learning that she's left the palace to track down Mishil, becomes so frightful for her welfare that his heart flinches and he nearly blacks out.
"Didn't I say to wait? All this fuss and I've only been gone a few days." Mishil is scolding Chilsuk for interrupting her. Apparently he did so before, when Daenambo arrived. But this time he has good reason: Deokman's here! And right on cue, she steps forward, with Yushin behind her.
Yushin and Bidam leave the two women to talk. Yushin wants an explanation from Bidam. His suspicious tone says he thinks Bidam is up to something no good. "She just said, 'Let's go somewhere?'" Yeah, that is exactly it. "There was no reason to say no," Bidam tells him. Okay, Yushin, so why are you here? "Deokman's concerned...she thinks Mishil isn't herself." Bidam doesn't exactly deny it, from which Yushin immediately jumps to the conclusion: "Mishil has had a change of heart?" Bidam isn't sure but says, "Looks that way." That's not very definitive, and doesn't clarify anything.
"Mishil, please stop this." What does Deokman want? "Don't you realize how hard I try to think like you, to act like you?" And not only that..."You are the most reliable of enemies. So why can't I wrap my brain around what you're doing?" Because still you're not in her league, maybe? Mishil isn't quite that impolite, but she answers, If you try so hard to do what I do, "Then I'm sure you can figure out why I'm doing this." Apparently Deokman can't...and "Saying it makes it even worse."
Seolwon is still trying to talk sense into Hajong. Your father follows Mishil because of her talent and wisdom, he argues. "THAT'S the Mishil who lost to Chunchu?" That's not what's going on here, he says. "Mishil's making up her mind about something. She's plotting something new, I'm sure of it."
"Your questions are always entertaining, princess." Mishil lets Deokman ask some more. "Do you believe you've been diminished?" "Yes." "So much so that you can't stand it?" A smile. "Yes." "Have you decided what you're going to do about it?" Still smiling. "Yes." Yikes, what is behind those one-word answers..."I may lose and you may win," Mishil says. "But there's no honor in asking me to hand victory to you. This era is MINE. If you want to found your own era, you'll have to do it over me." Says she needed "to get back to basics" and so she took a few days off. "I will fight you with all my heart, all that I am. To rule."
An irritated Sejong is sitting in a room, untied but surrounded by elite Hwarang. Bojong tells him that Seolwon simply wants to talk to him about whatever it is that's happening to Mishil....
And now, in the dimly light capital, it looks like somehow a peace conference of sorts is being arranged. A bound Seolwon is being escorted somewhere by all of his captors...and elsewhere so is a gama that presumably contains Sejong.
Deokman leaves Mishil. "Mishil has made up her mind," she says.
Now Mishil starts getting briefed on the marriage and the subsequent turmoil. She doesn't look terribly surprised by it. Simply tells Chilsuk to get ready to head back home.
So everybody heads back. Alcheon receives Deokman with news of the turmoil between Sejong and Seolwon. And nobody can find Chunchu. Bidam thinks he knows where the twerp is.
Yeom Jong's office: He and Chunchu are sitting there with cloths over their face, Yeom-Jong-style. Bidam walks in and pulls the cloths off. Then, surprisingly, Deokman and Yushin walk in! Bidam, charitably, introduces Yeom Jong to Deokman as having helped with the market crisis..which he did do. Then Deokman asks that she and Chunchu be left alone.
It doesn't exactly suggest a peace conference, looking at the number of swords being brandished! But right out there in a dimly lit plaza, Sejong and Seolwon are brought forward to face each other.
"Come to give up, have you?" What a twerp. "You're a woman of quality and talent I respect that." Deokman thanks him, blandly, and then says what she came to say. "First, I have to apologize. For thinking of you as a child, and not as a dragon who might ascend to the throne. I didn't appreciate your talents. I'm unrefined and a little crude. I lack your perception and gift with people." Which may all be true, but is she deliberately laying it on thick? And does Chunchu think she is?
"Trust me." Seolwon expects Sejong to trust him, in a mess like this? "If you can't do that, trust Mishil. You know Mishil wouldn't let things come to this." "True," Sejong muses; "Mishil would have killed me herself." Now who'd have thought Sejong could crack us up? "Exactly," Seolwon says, actually agreeing with him. "I'm ambitious, I admit, but I'm not so foolish as to do this without Mishil's approval. Please trust me." But things may have gone too far for Sejong: "Aren't we past that point?" So Seolwon looks across at Bojong, standing next to Sejong and holding him captive, and tells him to lower his sword. And put it on the ground. Which Bojong does. Not happily--not at all--but he does. And then tells the rest of his allied Hwarang to do the same, and to leave him and Sejong. So all of them disarm and leave the plaza. It's a brave gesture, full credit. What will Sejong do? The honorable thing, of course. "Lower your weapons," he says to his own allied Hwarang who surround Seolwon, "and leave us." Hajong doesn't seem to like it, but the Hwarang do as they're told and leave the plaza in the opposite direction. Now only Sejong, Seolwon, Hajong and Bojong are left.
"But you've failed." Chunchu failed? What does Deokman know? "There's something you missed." Chunchu can't believe that. Says he thought everything through, every possibility...and knows that no one else besides Deokman has a legitimate claim to the throne. Deokman calmly adds, "And one other." Really? "Mishil."
Sejong and Seolwon are untied, finally. And somehow they come to the conclusion that Mishil is going to seek the throne for herself. How they concluded that, I don't understand...but just then, Mishil shows up in the plaza.
"But that could never happen. It's ridiculous." Chunchu says that, but his sudden look of panic suggests he's been presented with something he didn't consider. "You and I have both been rather foolish," Deokman tells him. "I said a woman might rule. You said the caste system was foolish. You and I opened Mishil's eyes. The sleeping dragon awakens." Really? "Now is the time to take my hand," she adds, referring to her offer from earlier. "Leave Mishil to me."
Back in the plaza, the four men look relieved and happy to see Mishil back. "Yes," she tells them. "Now is MY time."
And here's the happy couple now, leaving the palace...and running right into Deokman.
Deokman takes the twerp inside--her home, I think--and sits him down. She isn't too happy and wants to talk to him, but he really has no interest. "I'm not Mishil," he says with an almost flippant lack of humility; "I don't need the military and the Hwarang. And I don't need to make a mock stone tablet and an eclipse like you. All I need is my wits and flair for words. A word from me and the worker ants scurried in every direction." Showing no reaction, Deokman simply offers to him that if he should fail, she'll be there for him. He almost laughs at the idea that he doesn't have the situation well in hand, but he agrees to call on her if he needs her.
Boryang is waiting for her manly hubby outside...and Seolwon and Bojong catch up to her. They arrive just as Chunchu steps back outside. Without hesitation he addresses Bojong as "father-in-law" and offers a sly apology for his and Boryang's "impulsiveness" in getting married. Bojong rolls his eyes in disbelief.
Now Seolwon and Bojong are talking to Sejong and Hajong, explaining themselves and asking forgiveness for the ugly confrontation (in the previous episode) and the unfounded accusations about Boryang's kidnapping. But Sejong and Hajong aren't in a forgiving mood; they glare angrily and walk away...
...They go back home, furious and fearful of their family's future. Misaeng is there too; fortunately he's staying calmer. But he isn't happy with Chunchu either (especially considering how much time he spent entertaining him). Surprisingly, Sejong still holds Seolwon responsible for the mess, but Misaeng has thought it through already and says "Definitely not." Then he heads off to have a word with Chunchu. But through all of this, where the heck is Mishil?
She's not in the palace, as Seolwon and Bojong are now told. Seolwon's first impulse is to send Seokpum, Dukchung and Bakui and their Hwarang to go find her. Then he thinks the better of it, and tells them to stand ready for orders right here. And he turns to Santak the annoying Hwarang and tells HIM to take some trainees and go find Mishil! That doesn't seem like thinking the better of anything, does it? But Santak is eager to do it, and the Hwarang head out--just as Misaeng walks in. He hasn't found Mishil either. What gives? "Looking back over her life," Seolwon observes, "Mishil may be starting to doubt herself." Without explaining what might be causing Mishil to be looking back like that, he says, "I'm concerned, and a little anxious." He does seem to know how she ticks, doesn't he....
The king and queen, Seohyeon and Manmyeong and Yongchun, are discussing Chunchu's supposed triumph in "using" Mishil. And how his marriage has created friction between Sejong and Seolwon. But they don't think that Mishil was really duped by any of it, and they're more baffled by Mishil not being more of a presence right now. "I can't help but think Mishil isn't quite herself," Jinpyeong says.
"Chunchu's full of himself now." Yes he is. Deokman is talking to Yushin, Alcheon and Wolya. But Yushin has no doubt that Mishil knows exactly what he's done, and considering how high a value she puts on loyalty, well...he doesn't finish the thought, but the twerp could be in big trouble eventually. But for now, if Mishil isn't around, is it time for Deokman to try to take advantage of the dissension in the cabal? Not just yet; they want to know what's happened to Mishil first.
Outside, Alcheon and Wolya send some of their Hwarang to look for Mishil. But where's Jukbang?
Uh-oh...remember he said he was going to try to get to Chunchu? Well look here, he just walks right into the room where Chunchu is. And to his great surprise, Chunchu receives him warmly and orders tea brought to him. "It's all your doing," he tells a baffled Jukbang. "I'd never have thought of it without you." Really? Jukbang is there to talk him out of his big plot, and tentatively starts to try, but Chunchu waves him off and says they can talk about that stuff later...and then puts a bag of money into Jukbang's hand. "I'd like to know what others think of this business." Jukbang looks at the bag and gulps...and then with much difficulty offers the bag back! "Just don't do anything to hurt the princess," he says, showing unusual backbone for him. But Chunchu again tells him that You were the reason I came up with my plan. It makes Jukbang squirm in horror, but Chunchu says, "At this point you might as well join me, don't you think?"
Now we see Jukbang leaving. He looks stunned, and he still has the bag of money in his hands. And he's angry with himself, muttering about "blabbing and blabbing." So much for backbone. "What's the power he has over me?", Jukbang wonders to himself. But just as he leaves, there's Misaeng headed inside. Godo is following Misaeng, and startles a guilty-looking Jukbang.
Now it's Misaeng talking to the twerp, about his new marriage. But Chunchu would rather talk about something else: his mother's murder! Not a subject Misaeng wants to revisit, for obvious reasons. "I graciously forgave Daenambo," Chunchu says; "So tell me, how will YOU repay me for my kindness?" Wow, talk about playing a card. He's got Misaeng by the cojones on this one, doesn't he. For once, Misaeng is at a loss for words.
As Jukbang and Godo talk, we learn that all of the newest Hwarang trainees are Gayans from Amnyang, and are present in all ten of the capital guard corps. And with Wolya in a high Hwarang position....
Now it's Misaeng leaving Chunchu's building, looking just as dazed as Jukbang did...but he's scared. And charges away to go look for Daenambo.
Sejong is with Piltan, who assures him that his father (the military leader) is behind him, "whatever it takes." Sejong asks him to go back to his father again, to discuss something important.
Now Piltan is with Ho Jae; tells him he's headed to see his father and then adds that "something serious" may happen in the capital. Just then Seokpum enters, here to see Jo Jae; excuses himself and leaves, rather uncomfortably. Odd scene.
Daenambo is supervising Hwarang training. Misaeng finds him. "Chunchu planned the whole thing," he says in a troubled gasp; "we've been suckered. How could I not see it coming?" And still no sign of Mishil. Daenambo has heard from one of the maids that Mishil "has been acting strangely." Yes she has. "Sleeping all day...though she's not sick." Which reminds Misaeng of what Seolwon told him earlier, about how Mishil may be looking back on her life with doubts or regrets. And that instantly turns the light bulb on--he knows where she went. "When she was banished from the capital she went there to nurse her grudge," he says. "After we gave Jinji the boot, she went there too." Okay, so where?
A Hwarang from amidst a group headed somewhere slips a note to Jukbang and Godo, who are dressed in plainclothes and low-brimmed hats. Jukbang reads it and they rush off to see Deokman.
Deokman is outside just staring off into the distance. "I trusted Mishil," she tells Yushin. As in, she could always trust Mishil to be the way she was. But now, letting Chunchu worm his way by her--this isn't like her. "Mishil has changed somehow," Deokman believes.
At last, there's Mishil...Still walking through the countryside with Bidam and holding his hand. Finally they arrive at a small building--a fancy building, but size-wise it's barely more than a small sheltered hut, if that. She stares out at the countryside. "Isn't it lovely?", she says. "I come here when I need to think." Already she starts to look visibly rejuvenated a little, just by being there.
Jukbang and Godo reach Deokman and tell her where Mishil is. (So apparently that note came from one of those new Gayan trainees who was in that group headed out to search for Mishil.) "Mount Oji, Haun Valley. The Gaon Shrine." (From what I can gather, this is the modern-day Namsan, a small mountain in Gyeongju National Park. This would have been very near to Seorabeol, so not implausible at all for Mishil to walk there. Not quickly, but she could get there.) "We've got to go," Deokman says.
"No kidding--my master cried like a baby because the training was hard?" This just gets stranger by the minute. Now Mishil and Bidam are sitting at a small table in front of the hut, and Mishil is telling Bidam old stories about Munno. And Bidam is loving it. She tells him that Bidam once "set a snake loose on his teacher, Gochilbu." Chilsuk is standing there silently nearby, doing his job of keeping guard (but who knows what must be running through his head as he listens to the conversation.) "I had the king's favor," Mishil explains, "so Gochilbu treated me fairly. Seolwon had an artistic side. He'd organize excursions to the country with other Hwarang. He was above the clouds, it seemed. We nicknamed him 'cloudwalker.'" Munno, well, they simply called him "'Guardian.' Eternal guard over Shilla." Bidam smiles at that...and then ventures, "And you?" Whatever nickname she may have had, she doesn't spill it. She offers only, "With the three of us the king swore he could conquer the world. He forgave our many faults." Okay, but Bidam wants to know her nickname and presses again. And she answers him. "King's bane." As in, her beauty could take down a king or a nation. Or as she puts it, "that my looks would be the end of Shilla someday." It was the Hwarang who gave her this nickname, she says. "They meant it as a warning to the king." Did she mind it? She stares into the distance, looking almost amused by it, apparently not really minding it but now starting to wonder, "Is that when my shameful dream of being queen was born?" Her speaking the word "shameful" is stunning. That she would characterize it like that, and even more so that she would speak of it that way openly now. It surprises Bidam, too.
"When Piltan left Sejong he said something doesn't bode well for the capital." Seokpum has reported this to Seolwon, and adds that Piltan then went to see his father--now identified as Jujin, Vice Marshal of Sangju. He commands 5000 men, which Bojong rightly wonders about a coup. The possibility concerns Seolwon. "How did things come to this?" Bojong wonders if their family should get on board with Chunchu right now to protect themselves...but Seolwon says it's too late; Sangju is so close to the capital that whatever is going to happen will happen too quickly for that. And Seolwon's own capital troops? "Absolutely not. That would make me the leader of a mutiny." Seolwon is confident that Mishil will settle everything down, and they just have to hold out until she returns. But for the moment, he wants Dukchung and Bakui and their Hwarang summoned...
...a development that Hajong finds out about, and he goes running in a panic to report to his father. "They figured Piltan's going to see his daddy so they're gonna hit us first!" Piltan's dad, he's a day or so away from the capital, so they're defenseless for a day at least. Still, Sejong has confidence that Seolwon won't use capital troops and start an all-out civil war. Hajong scurries off to find Chunchu.
"But...do we dare?" Bojong confronts his four elite Hwarang allies. Three are worried. Seokpum alone says, "I'll do it." And then reluctantly the other three get on board.
Hajong is before Ho Jae and Wang Yun and their men. "Mobilize your men to protect our house," Hajong tells the two leaders. Now a male attendant comes running in, obviously with bad news for Hajong....
Sejong is startled by five elite Hwarang barging in on him unannounced. "We mean you no harm, but you brought this on yourself," they tell him. And with an uncharacteristic (and unattractive) smirk on his face, Bojong orders Sejong dragged away! Which the other Hwarang proceed to do.
"They got my daddy?!" Hajong is half melting down on the spot. And he doesn't have enough men on his side to confront all those Hwarang Seolwon has. But wait a minute--"Was Seolwon with them?" No he wasn't. You don't think....
Yeah, you guessed it. As Sejong's kidnappers head for home--at least they put Sejong in a gama...tied him up, but he's in a gama--Santak the annoying Hwarang runs up to Bojong with a horrified look on his face. Seolwon's been snatched too!
Evening: Seolwon is tied up and sitting calmly in a shed somewhere. Hajong has a sword to his throat. Seolwon is unapologetic for kidnapping Sejong--it was the only way to protect his family's interests, he says, with things spiraling out of control--but at the same time he insists to Hajong that "Chunchu has suckered us all" and that Hajong needs to realize it. Hajong doesn't buy it. "That smarmy kid?" But Seolwon presses him. "Do you imagine Mishil would let things get this out of hand?" Well that certainly hits home; suddenly Hajong's swagger is gone.
Hey, it's Yeom Jong. He's with Chunchu. "So far so good," he says, as in, they had planned to get Sejong and Seolwon at each other's throats...but Yeom Jong can't understand why Mishil isn't doing anything. The twerp is convinced that eventually she'll support Seolwon and that she has no other choice. And then utters the sentence..."People overestimate Mishil, I think." Yeom Jong rightly warns the twerp not to overestimate her, but Chunchu isn't concerned. "I see her for what she is: a clever bureaucrat doing her job, nothing more." Yeom Jong can only stare at him with concern.
Now it's evening; mother and son have been talking for quite a while. "I was a woman with no purpose," Mishil says. "A queen? What's a queen? Some man's wife. What good is that?" She laughs. "I flew in the face of the times. I abandoned my son. I left him. Just to be queen." This is extraordinary, what we're hearing...and it gets Bidam to admit something: "I think you're remarkable." And says he can understand how her dream of being queen led her to act as she did. "Shameful or noble...dreams do that. They cost you everything." Mishil turns and looks at him, and says, "Thank you for understanding." Not in a wracked-with-guilt way, just matter-of-factly, but still...Then she asks him, "Why do you support Deokman? She's not right for you?" Now it's Bidam looking off into the distance. "I'm a kind of duckling, I suppose." Uh-oh...is the weird guy back? "Ducklings follow the first one they see after they hatch."
At the other side of the building, Daenambo has arrived. Chilsuk receives him and tells him Mishil wants him to wait. He's brought a letter, presumably from Misaeng, and tries to tell Chilsuk about Sejong and Seolwon, but Chilsuk waves him off.
Bidam thinks back to Munno's dying words to him. About how Bidam's helping Deokman, without knowing who she was, well, "She brought out your better side." As he stares vacantly, Mishil looks at him. "You're in love," she surmises. He doesn't admit to it, or even seem convinced of it. But Mishil adds, "Men who love women and follow them from afar...make me want to crush them underfoot." Ah, there's the Mishil we know and love. Bidam challenges her--Suppose I'm helping fulfill my own dreams? He talks about the geographical survey, and the idea of unifying the Three Kingdoms. Unification means a lot to Deokman, he says, "and I'd get to have my name remembered for a thousand years." Mishil smiles at him as he continues. "Munno swore that the name of the man who unifies our country will go down in history. A dream like that is noble, don't you think? And women find a man with that kind of dream VERY interesting." Well, you can make a good argument that it's not so much noble as it is vain...but whatever...Now he stares at her, all business, and says, "What do you say you toss aside your tawdry little dream?" She leans forward and asks, "Why?" His unflinching answer: "For me." Looking amused, she tells him, "No, thank you." Why not? "Admitting my life's dream is shameful isn't the same as giving up." So? "I'll just start over. That's how I am." Now what does THAT mean? As she looks at him, supremely satisfied with herself, we're left to try to make sense of that.
Yongchun and Imjong report to the king about the Sejong/Seolwon drama. Sohwa is there too, and the king asks her where Deokman is...and learning that she's left the palace to track down Mishil, becomes so frightful for her welfare that his heart flinches and he nearly blacks out.
"Didn't I say to wait? All this fuss and I've only been gone a few days." Mishil is scolding Chilsuk for interrupting her. Apparently he did so before, when Daenambo arrived. But this time he has good reason: Deokman's here! And right on cue, she steps forward, with Yushin behind her.
Yushin and Bidam leave the two women to talk. Yushin wants an explanation from Bidam. His suspicious tone says he thinks Bidam is up to something no good. "She just said, 'Let's go somewhere?'" Yeah, that is exactly it. "There was no reason to say no," Bidam tells him. Okay, Yushin, so why are you here? "Deokman's concerned...she thinks Mishil isn't herself." Bidam doesn't exactly deny it, from which Yushin immediately jumps to the conclusion: "Mishil has had a change of heart?" Bidam isn't sure but says, "Looks that way." That's not very definitive, and doesn't clarify anything.
"Mishil, please stop this." What does Deokman want? "Don't you realize how hard I try to think like you, to act like you?" And not only that..."You are the most reliable of enemies. So why can't I wrap my brain around what you're doing?" Because still you're not in her league, maybe? Mishil isn't quite that impolite, but she answers, If you try so hard to do what I do, "Then I'm sure you can figure out why I'm doing this." Apparently Deokman can't...and "Saying it makes it even worse."
Seolwon is still trying to talk sense into Hajong. Your father follows Mishil because of her talent and wisdom, he argues. "THAT'S the Mishil who lost to Chunchu?" That's not what's going on here, he says. "Mishil's making up her mind about something. She's plotting something new, I'm sure of it."
"Your questions are always entertaining, princess." Mishil lets Deokman ask some more. "Do you believe you've been diminished?" "Yes." "So much so that you can't stand it?" A smile. "Yes." "Have you decided what you're going to do about it?" Still smiling. "Yes." Yikes, what is behind those one-word answers..."I may lose and you may win," Mishil says. "But there's no honor in asking me to hand victory to you. This era is MINE. If you want to found your own era, you'll have to do it over me." Says she needed "to get back to basics" and so she took a few days off. "I will fight you with all my heart, all that I am. To rule."
An irritated Sejong is sitting in a room, untied but surrounded by elite Hwarang. Bojong tells him that Seolwon simply wants to talk to him about whatever it is that's happening to Mishil....
And now, in the dimly light capital, it looks like somehow a peace conference of sorts is being arranged. A bound Seolwon is being escorted somewhere by all of his captors...and elsewhere so is a gama that presumably contains Sejong.
Deokman leaves Mishil. "Mishil has made up her mind," she says.
Now Mishil starts getting briefed on the marriage and the subsequent turmoil. She doesn't look terribly surprised by it. Simply tells Chilsuk to get ready to head back home.
So everybody heads back. Alcheon receives Deokman with news of the turmoil between Sejong and Seolwon. And nobody can find Chunchu. Bidam thinks he knows where the twerp is.
Yeom Jong's office: He and Chunchu are sitting there with cloths over their face, Yeom-Jong-style. Bidam walks in and pulls the cloths off. Then, surprisingly, Deokman and Yushin walk in! Bidam, charitably, introduces Yeom Jong to Deokman as having helped with the market crisis..which he did do. Then Deokman asks that she and Chunchu be left alone.
It doesn't exactly suggest a peace conference, looking at the number of swords being brandished! But right out there in a dimly lit plaza, Sejong and Seolwon are brought forward to face each other.
"Come to give up, have you?" What a twerp. "You're a woman of quality and talent I respect that." Deokman thanks him, blandly, and then says what she came to say. "First, I have to apologize. For thinking of you as a child, and not as a dragon who might ascend to the throne. I didn't appreciate your talents. I'm unrefined and a little crude. I lack your perception and gift with people." Which may all be true, but is she deliberately laying it on thick? And does Chunchu think she is?
"Trust me." Seolwon expects Sejong to trust him, in a mess like this? "If you can't do that, trust Mishil. You know Mishil wouldn't let things come to this." "True," Sejong muses; "Mishil would have killed me herself." Now who'd have thought Sejong could crack us up? "Exactly," Seolwon says, actually agreeing with him. "I'm ambitious, I admit, but I'm not so foolish as to do this without Mishil's approval. Please trust me." But things may have gone too far for Sejong: "Aren't we past that point?" So Seolwon looks across at Bojong, standing next to Sejong and holding him captive, and tells him to lower his sword. And put it on the ground. Which Bojong does. Not happily--not at all--but he does. And then tells the rest of his allied Hwarang to do the same, and to leave him and Sejong. So all of them disarm and leave the plaza. It's a brave gesture, full credit. What will Sejong do? The honorable thing, of course. "Lower your weapons," he says to his own allied Hwarang who surround Seolwon, "and leave us." Hajong doesn't seem to like it, but the Hwarang do as they're told and leave the plaza in the opposite direction. Now only Sejong, Seolwon, Hajong and Bojong are left.
"But you've failed." Chunchu failed? What does Deokman know? "There's something you missed." Chunchu can't believe that. Says he thought everything through, every possibility...and knows that no one else besides Deokman has a legitimate claim to the throne. Deokman calmly adds, "And one other." Really? "Mishil."
Sejong and Seolwon are untied, finally. And somehow they come to the conclusion that Mishil is going to seek the throne for herself. How they concluded that, I don't understand...but just then, Mishil shows up in the plaza.
"But that could never happen. It's ridiculous." Chunchu says that, but his sudden look of panic suggests he's been presented with something he didn't consider. "You and I have both been rather foolish," Deokman tells him. "I said a woman might rule. You said the caste system was foolish. You and I opened Mishil's eyes. The sleeping dragon awakens." Really? "Now is the time to take my hand," she adds, referring to her offer from earlier. "Leave Mishil to me."
Back in the plaza, the four men look relieved and happy to see Mishil back. "Yes," she tells them. "Now is MY time."