Post by ajk on May 24, 2013 22:16:53 GMT -5
Yeom Jong is just standing there next to Bidam, smiling and recalling an earlier conversation with Misaeng about how he's sure he can fool Bidam about QSD's intentions...but you'd think he'd be a little more concerned about his own safety! Instead he pokes Bidam even more. "Did Her Majesty send him to kill you?" Come on, Bidam--you know who's m.o. the blowgun is and it's not QSD's...but it hasn't hit him, at least not yet, and now Yeom Jong is laughing at him and mocking him about his "mighty devotion" to the queen and what it got him. That one goes too far. Bidam grabs him and waves his sword in Yeom Jong's face. Even at that, Yeom Jong tells him that Killing me won't solve any of this. And that "Once again, you've been abandoned. Her Majesty gave up on you." Bidam is shaking so hard he drops his sword and falls to the ground. (Why doesn't he just go ask her?)
In the mercenary cave, the Supporters are all gathered and are nervously waiting for Yeom Jong to come through and bring Bidam as he said he would. More and more nervous...now starting to doubt Yeom Jong's competence and even his intentions.
But Yeom Jong is still out there, pounding hard on Bidam's fragile psyche. "If you want to make Deokman yours, you must gain control of this country!" Now Bidam looks dazed and starts walking around zombie-like, and staggers off aimlessly into the woods. Not the response Yeom Jong wanted.
QSD is writing--and what she writes is staggering:
"Does she really want me dead?" Come on, Bidam, you know better than that. But now he's thinking about his earlier conversations with QSD, when she was still intent on not marrying...and now everything is blurring together in his mind. He slumps against a tree, disconsolate and beyond confused. He pulls out the ring that QSD gave him when he left her and clutches it tightly.
No matter what happens, have faith in me and await. The queen finishes her letter, signs it "Deokman" and folds it up. She seals it in a royal envelope and gives it to Jukbang for him to take to Bidam personally.
Bidam thinks things through as best he's capable of doing, and finally decides that if the weight that QSD has to bear, the weight of being ruler, is making her want to kill him, then "I will bear that weight for you." Hmmm....how?
"How could you come here alone?!" Yeom Jong has made it to the cave, by himself. He tells the Supporters he's sure Bidam will show, but he can't possibly believe that, can he? The Supporters figure it's time to move on, fearful that their location may have been discovered by now. But as they decide to head to the next secret place...Bidam shows up! Visible relief all around.
Alcheon deploys his guards around the palace, extra-concerned about possible trouble tonight. One of his subordinates stays behind and tells him he hasn't seen Heuksan in a few days, and before that Heuksan was acting strangely. Who's Heuksan?
Bidam has told the Supporters that the next secret location they had planned to head to, in Yulpo Prefecture, We're not going there. That was Mishil's mistake, he tells them; abandoning the capital. "Abandoning the capital will make you a traitor," he says. Instead "I shall capture Seorabeol, dethrone Her Majesty, and ascend to the throne." Well isn't THAT just what they all wanted to hear! All ten of them are tickled pink. And We're doing it right now, he says, as in, tonight! That does not tickle them pink. Now they think he's crazy. They haven't gathered enough support from the nobles or built up their forces sufficiently. He grins at them.
Morning: QSD and her allies are trying to anticipate the Supporters' next move. Seohyeon is presenting various plans. Suddenly, first Geoksaheun and then Daepoong enter with news of troop movements--toward the capital! Yeah, but the direction they’re coming from, there's a bottleneck point--only one place where thousands of troops can get through with any ease. QSD looks at the map that Seohyeon has been using as his visual aid, turns to Yushin and orders a defense line at that place: Deoksanjae.
Now look at this: Bidam has an army now and we see it's encampment. Inside a tent, Bidam is looking at a map similar to Seohyeon's and has spotted the critical Deoksanjae pass just like QSD did. Troops have arrived and everything is in readiness...but Yeom Jong runs in with news of the defense line deployment led by Yushin.
QSD wants at all costs to avoid war breaking out in or around the capital. The potential loss of life could be enormous. The big question seems to be just how many troops the Supporters actually have.
Bidam orders Jujin and Ho Jae to take their troops and attack Yushin's line. But be prepared to withdraw if a withdrawal order arrives, he tells them. Bojong's troops are to go with them. Jujin and Ho Jae scurry off to do so...but Bidam's mention of a withdrawal seems a little odd, and Yeom Jong looks puzzled and concerned by it.
Suddenly we're looking from outside at a fortress not far from Seorabeol. Dozens of mercenaries are crouched in the nearby woods, observing the gate. Subtitling tells is this is a fortress at summit of Mount Myeonghwal.
Word of the Deoksanjae attack reaches the capital. Seohyeon orders adjustments and reinforcements.
Yeom Jong excitedly brings Bidam news of government troop movements in exactly the manner that Bidam predicted. Bidam tells him to alert Piltan's troops to deploy. But then he adds, "Order the battalions of Lords Ho Jae, Jujin and Bojong to withdraw immediately." What? So soon?
"The enemy is retreating?" Seohyeon gets the latest news and doesn't understand it at all.
Myeonghwalsan Fortress: Okay, now we get what Bidam was doing--show an attack at the pass as a diversion and then send everybody to this fortress near the capital. A surprise attack on the lightly guarded gate by the mercenaries leaves the guards dead.
An excited Yongchun brings good news about the retreat to QSD. But neither she nor Chunchu is all that excited; they're confused like Seohyeon was. But Chunchu realizes that where they're the place the enemy seems to be headed, Myeonghwalsan Fortress, it's so close to the capital that it will be like having two opposing forces in the same capital city.
Yushin gets the same news and realizes that they were never trying to gain the capital; they wanted Myeonghwalsan Fortress. (BIG-time plot problem here: if the only way to Seorabeol was to go through Deoksanjae Pass, then how did they get to a fortress practically next door to Seorabeol without going through the pass? It makes no sense at all.)
The attackers have taken over the place and welcome Bidam and the Supporters at its front gate. They congratulate Bidam on his "brilliant strategy." And we're supposed to believe that nobody else, including Yushin, anticipated it.
Now QSD and her allies are digesting the events. Myeonghwalsan Fortress is only 15 minutes from the capital by horseback, and now there's a big hostile army sitting inside it.
Misaeng tells the other Supporters that their next move should be to spread the word about this large army menacing the capital from so close. And use it to stoke the doubts that they raised initially through the Tang envoy about Shilla's vulnerability under a female ruler. Everyone else likes that idea very much, and decide to hunker down here in the fortress for a while and let it unfold.
Chunchu is trying to convince QSD that this isn't just the Supporters any more; Bidam has joined forces with them. "They no longer have a Mishil or Seolwon to lean onto. So who else would concoct such a daring stratagem? It can only be Bidam." Not sure about that, but the queen is thinking the same thing and reluctantly admits it.
Evening: Chuhwa County: Jukbang has arrived with his message. Santak the Formerly Annoying is there, but not Bidam. Why not? Where is he?
"I shall dethrone her majesty." Suddenly Bidam wants immediate action. He had just said the very opposite, and his supporters can't figure him out. Military action now? No, turns out that's not what he's talking about. He's counted up numbers and realizes that the Council of Nobles, as the alliances stand now, have a majority on his side. He wants to call a Council meeting! Can he legally do that?
Evening: Now Bidam is wondering through the fortress town by himself. Clutching the ring QSD gave him, and thinking.
Morning: Yes, he's called a Council meeting on his own, legal or not. He and his six allies are gathered around an outdoor table. Bidam unfurls a scroll and starts to read:
Yongchun and Seohyeon bring QSD the proclamation. She doesn't want to accept that Bidam was part of this. But she's not ruling it out, not yet. Now Alcheon enters and asks her to follow him outside...
..where we see a dead man on a horse. This is Heuksan, and okay, he's the head guard we saw before who was working for Yeom Jong and who Bidam killed. Nobody here knows that, though, so they wonder if this is a threatening message against the royal house. But Yongchun spots something hanging on a string from Heuksan's neck. It's the ring! The ring the queen gave Bidam.
Well look at that--Jukbang and Santak made it to Bidam. Bidam reads the message, crumples it up angrily and grabs Jukbang in anger. He thinks it's a fraud and that Chunchu put him up to it. Jukbang insists not: "Why would I come here and risk my life?" Santak backs him up, telling Bidam that Jukbang showed up in Chuhwa to deliver the message directly from QSD to him. But Bidam doesn't buy it. "Tell this to Chunchu and Deokman," he says threateningly, "That the Bidam they so ardently wanted to get rid of...is alive and well."
Chunchu, Yongchun and Seohyeon urge QSD to make a decision to act--NOW. Before this edict spreads and simmers any longer, and before the Supporters can accumulate any more strength. Well FINALLY she does: Bidam is fired, she says, and proclaimed an enemy of the state. "Tell the people to repel the usurpers, execute all traitors, and fulfill this country's aspirations." The three leave to carry out that order, and then she turns to Alcheon. "Find out what you can about Heuksan, that Royal Palace guard." Well THAT'S an interesting twist.
Bidam has taken Santak outside and asks him privately if the message is genuine. It is, Santak says. Bidam tells him that "The man who attempted to kill me was a Royal Palace guard. Find out what you can about him." Hah! Here we go; somebody's going to get to the bottom of this. But wait, somebody's behind a corner listening...
...and it was one of Yeom Jong's men. Who goes right to Yeom Jong and tells him. We can't let this happen, Yeom Jong replies; "Gather all your men."
What just happened here? In a flash, we see a squad of men--looks like Yeom Jong's men, killing three villagers. The bodies have barely fallen when Alcheon and a squad of his own arrive. His squad chases after the killers, leaving Alcheon behind to investigate. Alcheon notices a rustling behind some hay bales, and finds a frightened teenage girl. The daughter of two of the three dead people. The sister of Heuksan. The family was about to run and take refuge because her brother was in trouble with "This man from the inspectorate, Yeo...Yeom...Yes, a man called Yeom Jong." Doink! Alcheon gets his answer. And Santak also gets it; he just showed up a little ways away and heard the conversation without being spotted.
Jukbang has made it back safely to QSD. Reluctantly has to tell her, "Lord Bidam believes you attempted to kill him." She has no clue how this happened. She has no reason to have a clue, of course...But now Alcheon returns with the scoop on Heuksan. Ah, now the pieces fit together. All of this confusion and misunderstanding was sown by Yeom Jong. But to our surprise, QSD is strangely resigned to not being able to clear it up at this point. "There is nothing I can do for Bidam." Not what we expected her to say at all, that she won't even try to fix it...but maybe the accumulation of everything else has just become too much. Oh, and now she grabs her chest again...so maybe she's just not physically strong enough to fix things.
Santak scurries back to Myeonghwalsan Fortress. But at the gate he's intercepted by Yeom Jong, who fears what he might now know and tell Bidam. Uh-oh...Santak puts two and two together, and suddenly turns and runs like heck out into the countryside. Three of Yeom Jong's men run after him. Santak isn't exactly graceful, but the three aren't making any ground, and now they fire an arrow and miss him (apparently they're not three of Yeom Jong's BEST men)...but now, looky here--a cliff! Of course it is. Santak is trapped atop a cliff. He jumps...His pursuers run up to the top and look around...and as they do, we see Santak clinging to a rock just below the pinnacle, hoping the three don't spot him.
Inside Myeonghwalsan, Bidam paces back and forth, still trying to digest Deokman's message and demanding to know where Santak is. But instead, Jujin, Misaeng and Hajong bring in Lord Yeongjin, a noble who's jumped to their side. Bidam receives him calmly. And others are on the way, they tell him--enough to turn the tide. "Many nobles are showing confidence in you," Misaeng tells Bidam. He receives the news eagerly, or at least he acts that way.
But he heads outside now, looking for Santak. Asks Yeom Jong, who lies and answers he hasn't seen him.
"I dispatched orders to kill Bidam and his retinue to all fortresses." Yushin gives the word to a subdued QSD. "Looks like blood will have to be shed inside the capital." Hopefully not, but Yushin tells her that "We are preparing for everything." And then, unprompted, the queen starts to explain herself. It doesn't matter any more if Bidam was fooled deliberately, or if it was just a misunderstanding. "Bidam and I crossed the line already," she says...and she wonders in hindsight "whether the only reason why I so suddenly grew to like him was to appropriate those nobles of their troops. I still cannot be sure in my mind." WOW. "Whether I only married him so that his rise to power could be halted, is something I cannot be sure about." (Wait--MARRIED? As in, past tense? HUH? That must be a mistranslation.) "But my desire to abdicate the throne and quietly spend my final days with him, that last dream of mine, was sincere." This is quite a burst of self-examination we've suddenly gotten. Yushin, sitting there listening to this, have to wonder what's going through his mind. He says nothing, but he sure could say plenty.
Now it's QSD's proclamation that's getting circulated. Bidam got a copy. He reads it, crumples it up and slams it to the ground.
Evening: Alcheon brings welcome news. "People are gathering at the Exhibition Hall. They want to protect you and this nation from those traitors." She wants to go see what this is all about.
Simultaneously, Bidam goes to address his troops, accompanied by Yeom Jong, Misaeng and Bojong. "Our great nation is crying tears of distress," he shouts to his army. "Because of an incompetent ruler."
QSD finds the large gathering of citizens who have shown up to support the royal house. She starts to address them. "Our great nation is in distress, because of nobles who refuse to let go of anything." And now we start to cut back and forth between two oddly similar scenes:
B: "We lost the war, were belittled by neighboring countries..."
Q: "They appropriated even more from our people and sold their allegiance to our neighbors."
B: "That is how our nation fell into crisis and despair."
Q: "That is how our nation fell into a severe crisis."
B: "We shall no longer allow this."
Q: "We shall no longer idle away."
B: "I shall dethrone Her Majesty..."
Q: "We shall repel the insurgents..."
B: "And build a new nation..."
Q: "And restore order and prestige..."
B: "A new, grandiose nation!"
Q: "Prestige which will lead us to unify the Three Kingdoms!" Chants of "Hurrah for Her Majesty!"
Chants of "Hurrah for His Excellency! Hurrah for Lord Bidam!"
In the mercenary cave, the Supporters are all gathered and are nervously waiting for Yeom Jong to come through and bring Bidam as he said he would. More and more nervous...now starting to doubt Yeom Jong's competence and even his intentions.
But Yeom Jong is still out there, pounding hard on Bidam's fragile psyche. "If you want to make Deokman yours, you must gain control of this country!" Now Bidam looks dazed and starts walking around zombie-like, and staggers off aimlessly into the woods. Not the response Yeom Jong wanted.
QSD is writing--and what she writes is staggering:
Once this is over, I shall abdicate the throne. I will leave the throne behind, and head to Chuhwa County. So, find enough space for a small temple, and await me there. Brief as it might end up being, I will spend the time I have left with you.Obviously this is a letter to Bidam. And obviously she thinks she has some sort of fatal illness that will prevent her from acting as ruler for much longer.
"Does she really want me dead?" Come on, Bidam, you know better than that. But now he's thinking about his earlier conversations with QSD, when she was still intent on not marrying...and now everything is blurring together in his mind. He slumps against a tree, disconsolate and beyond confused. He pulls out the ring that QSD gave him when he left her and clutches it tightly.
No matter what happens, have faith in me and await. The queen finishes her letter, signs it "Deokman" and folds it up. She seals it in a royal envelope and gives it to Jukbang for him to take to Bidam personally.
Bidam thinks things through as best he's capable of doing, and finally decides that if the weight that QSD has to bear, the weight of being ruler, is making her want to kill him, then "I will bear that weight for you." Hmmm....how?
"How could you come here alone?!" Yeom Jong has made it to the cave, by himself. He tells the Supporters he's sure Bidam will show, but he can't possibly believe that, can he? The Supporters figure it's time to move on, fearful that their location may have been discovered by now. But as they decide to head to the next secret place...Bidam shows up! Visible relief all around.
Alcheon deploys his guards around the palace, extra-concerned about possible trouble tonight. One of his subordinates stays behind and tells him he hasn't seen Heuksan in a few days, and before that Heuksan was acting strangely. Who's Heuksan?
Bidam has told the Supporters that the next secret location they had planned to head to, in Yulpo Prefecture, We're not going there. That was Mishil's mistake, he tells them; abandoning the capital. "Abandoning the capital will make you a traitor," he says. Instead "I shall capture Seorabeol, dethrone Her Majesty, and ascend to the throne." Well isn't THAT just what they all wanted to hear! All ten of them are tickled pink. And We're doing it right now, he says, as in, tonight! That does not tickle them pink. Now they think he's crazy. They haven't gathered enough support from the nobles or built up their forces sufficiently. He grins at them.
Morning: QSD and her allies are trying to anticipate the Supporters' next move. Seohyeon is presenting various plans. Suddenly, first Geoksaheun and then Daepoong enter with news of troop movements--toward the capital! Yeah, but the direction they’re coming from, there's a bottleneck point--only one place where thousands of troops can get through with any ease. QSD looks at the map that Seohyeon has been using as his visual aid, turns to Yushin and orders a defense line at that place: Deoksanjae.
Now look at this: Bidam has an army now and we see it's encampment. Inside a tent, Bidam is looking at a map similar to Seohyeon's and has spotted the critical Deoksanjae pass just like QSD did. Troops have arrived and everything is in readiness...but Yeom Jong runs in with news of the defense line deployment led by Yushin.
QSD wants at all costs to avoid war breaking out in or around the capital. The potential loss of life could be enormous. The big question seems to be just how many troops the Supporters actually have.
Bidam orders Jujin and Ho Jae to take their troops and attack Yushin's line. But be prepared to withdraw if a withdrawal order arrives, he tells them. Bojong's troops are to go with them. Jujin and Ho Jae scurry off to do so...but Bidam's mention of a withdrawal seems a little odd, and Yeom Jong looks puzzled and concerned by it.
Suddenly we're looking from outside at a fortress not far from Seorabeol. Dozens of mercenaries are crouched in the nearby woods, observing the gate. Subtitling tells is this is a fortress at summit of Mount Myeonghwal.
Word of the Deoksanjae attack reaches the capital. Seohyeon orders adjustments and reinforcements.
Yeom Jong excitedly brings Bidam news of government troop movements in exactly the manner that Bidam predicted. Bidam tells him to alert Piltan's troops to deploy. But then he adds, "Order the battalions of Lords Ho Jae, Jujin and Bojong to withdraw immediately." What? So soon?
"The enemy is retreating?" Seohyeon gets the latest news and doesn't understand it at all.
Myeonghwalsan Fortress: Okay, now we get what Bidam was doing--show an attack at the pass as a diversion and then send everybody to this fortress near the capital. A surprise attack on the lightly guarded gate by the mercenaries leaves the guards dead.
An excited Yongchun brings good news about the retreat to QSD. But neither she nor Chunchu is all that excited; they're confused like Seohyeon was. But Chunchu realizes that where they're the place the enemy seems to be headed, Myeonghwalsan Fortress, it's so close to the capital that it will be like having two opposing forces in the same capital city.
Yushin gets the same news and realizes that they were never trying to gain the capital; they wanted Myeonghwalsan Fortress. (BIG-time plot problem here: if the only way to Seorabeol was to go through Deoksanjae Pass, then how did they get to a fortress practically next door to Seorabeol without going through the pass? It makes no sense at all.)
The attackers have taken over the place and welcome Bidam and the Supporters at its front gate. They congratulate Bidam on his "brilliant strategy." And we're supposed to believe that nobody else, including Yushin, anticipated it.
Now QSD and her allies are digesting the events. Myeonghwalsan Fortress is only 15 minutes from the capital by horseback, and now there's a big hostile army sitting inside it.
Misaeng tells the other Supporters that their next move should be to spread the word about this large army menacing the capital from so close. And use it to stoke the doubts that they raised initially through the Tang envoy about Shilla's vulnerability under a female ruler. Everyone else likes that idea very much, and decide to hunker down here in the fortress for a while and let it unfold.
Chunchu is trying to convince QSD that this isn't just the Supporters any more; Bidam has joined forces with them. "They no longer have a Mishil or Seolwon to lean onto. So who else would concoct such a daring stratagem? It can only be Bidam." Not sure about that, but the queen is thinking the same thing and reluctantly admits it.
Evening: Chuhwa County: Jukbang has arrived with his message. Santak the Formerly Annoying is there, but not Bidam. Why not? Where is he?
"I shall dethrone her majesty." Suddenly Bidam wants immediate action. He had just said the very opposite, and his supporters can't figure him out. Military action now? No, turns out that's not what he's talking about. He's counted up numbers and realizes that the Council of Nobles, as the alliances stand now, have a majority on his side. He wants to call a Council meeting! Can he legally do that?
Evening: Now Bidam is wondering through the fortress town by himself. Clutching the ring QSD gave him, and thinking.
Morning: Yes, he's called a Council meeting on his own, legal or not. He and his six allies are gathered around an outdoor table. Bidam unfurls a scroll and starts to read:
Her Majesty Deokman could not protect the territory King Jinheung conquered; suffered countless invasions at the hands of Goguryeo and Baekje; lost Daeya Fortress to the enemy; and as a female ruler was belittled by a Tang delegation, besmirching our pride and the legacy of our flag. Also, the auspicious omen Ashoka the Great revealed to us indicates that her time on the throne must now end, and that a new ruler shall grace our country. So would this not be what heaven's providence has blessed us with? For these reasons, Sangdaedeung Bidam and this council decided upon the dethronement of Her Majesty, and proclaim that the only way our nation can be rescued from misery is if she relinquishes all her powers of her own volition.This is a formal proclamation, signed by Bidam and the Council of Nobles, or so it says. And it was widely and quickly distributed, as we can now see. The wealthy and the common all over Shilla are reading copies of it, and it even has reached Chuhwa County where Jukbang and Santak read it in horror. Jukbang has particular reason to not like it--he still has to deliver that envelope to Bidam. Who is now in Myeonghwalsan Fortress leading the rebel army. Orders is orders, but yikes! Santak encourages him to just forget it--but Jukbang says I'm going and you're coming with me!
Yongchun and Seohyeon bring QSD the proclamation. She doesn't want to accept that Bidam was part of this. But she's not ruling it out, not yet. Now Alcheon enters and asks her to follow him outside...
..where we see a dead man on a horse. This is Heuksan, and okay, he's the head guard we saw before who was working for Yeom Jong and who Bidam killed. Nobody here knows that, though, so they wonder if this is a threatening message against the royal house. But Yongchun spots something hanging on a string from Heuksan's neck. It's the ring! The ring the queen gave Bidam.
Well look at that--Jukbang and Santak made it to Bidam. Bidam reads the message, crumples it up angrily and grabs Jukbang in anger. He thinks it's a fraud and that Chunchu put him up to it. Jukbang insists not: "Why would I come here and risk my life?" Santak backs him up, telling Bidam that Jukbang showed up in Chuhwa to deliver the message directly from QSD to him. But Bidam doesn't buy it. "Tell this to Chunchu and Deokman," he says threateningly, "That the Bidam they so ardently wanted to get rid of...is alive and well."
Chunchu, Yongchun and Seohyeon urge QSD to make a decision to act--NOW. Before this edict spreads and simmers any longer, and before the Supporters can accumulate any more strength. Well FINALLY she does: Bidam is fired, she says, and proclaimed an enemy of the state. "Tell the people to repel the usurpers, execute all traitors, and fulfill this country's aspirations." The three leave to carry out that order, and then she turns to Alcheon. "Find out what you can about Heuksan, that Royal Palace guard." Well THAT'S an interesting twist.
Bidam has taken Santak outside and asks him privately if the message is genuine. It is, Santak says. Bidam tells him that "The man who attempted to kill me was a Royal Palace guard. Find out what you can about him." Hah! Here we go; somebody's going to get to the bottom of this. But wait, somebody's behind a corner listening...
...and it was one of Yeom Jong's men. Who goes right to Yeom Jong and tells him. We can't let this happen, Yeom Jong replies; "Gather all your men."
What just happened here? In a flash, we see a squad of men--looks like Yeom Jong's men, killing three villagers. The bodies have barely fallen when Alcheon and a squad of his own arrive. His squad chases after the killers, leaving Alcheon behind to investigate. Alcheon notices a rustling behind some hay bales, and finds a frightened teenage girl. The daughter of two of the three dead people. The sister of Heuksan. The family was about to run and take refuge because her brother was in trouble with "This man from the inspectorate, Yeo...Yeom...Yes, a man called Yeom Jong." Doink! Alcheon gets his answer. And Santak also gets it; he just showed up a little ways away and heard the conversation without being spotted.
Jukbang has made it back safely to QSD. Reluctantly has to tell her, "Lord Bidam believes you attempted to kill him." She has no clue how this happened. She has no reason to have a clue, of course...But now Alcheon returns with the scoop on Heuksan. Ah, now the pieces fit together. All of this confusion and misunderstanding was sown by Yeom Jong. But to our surprise, QSD is strangely resigned to not being able to clear it up at this point. "There is nothing I can do for Bidam." Not what we expected her to say at all, that she won't even try to fix it...but maybe the accumulation of everything else has just become too much. Oh, and now she grabs her chest again...so maybe she's just not physically strong enough to fix things.
Santak scurries back to Myeonghwalsan Fortress. But at the gate he's intercepted by Yeom Jong, who fears what he might now know and tell Bidam. Uh-oh...Santak puts two and two together, and suddenly turns and runs like heck out into the countryside. Three of Yeom Jong's men run after him. Santak isn't exactly graceful, but the three aren't making any ground, and now they fire an arrow and miss him (apparently they're not three of Yeom Jong's BEST men)...but now, looky here--a cliff! Of course it is. Santak is trapped atop a cliff. He jumps...His pursuers run up to the top and look around...and as they do, we see Santak clinging to a rock just below the pinnacle, hoping the three don't spot him.
Inside Myeonghwalsan, Bidam paces back and forth, still trying to digest Deokman's message and demanding to know where Santak is. But instead, Jujin, Misaeng and Hajong bring in Lord Yeongjin, a noble who's jumped to their side. Bidam receives him calmly. And others are on the way, they tell him--enough to turn the tide. "Many nobles are showing confidence in you," Misaeng tells Bidam. He receives the news eagerly, or at least he acts that way.
But he heads outside now, looking for Santak. Asks Yeom Jong, who lies and answers he hasn't seen him.
"I dispatched orders to kill Bidam and his retinue to all fortresses." Yushin gives the word to a subdued QSD. "Looks like blood will have to be shed inside the capital." Hopefully not, but Yushin tells her that "We are preparing for everything." And then, unprompted, the queen starts to explain herself. It doesn't matter any more if Bidam was fooled deliberately, or if it was just a misunderstanding. "Bidam and I crossed the line already," she says...and she wonders in hindsight "whether the only reason why I so suddenly grew to like him was to appropriate those nobles of their troops. I still cannot be sure in my mind." WOW. "Whether I only married him so that his rise to power could be halted, is something I cannot be sure about." (Wait--MARRIED? As in, past tense? HUH? That must be a mistranslation.) "But my desire to abdicate the throne and quietly spend my final days with him, that last dream of mine, was sincere." This is quite a burst of self-examination we've suddenly gotten. Yushin, sitting there listening to this, have to wonder what's going through his mind. He says nothing, but he sure could say plenty.
Now it's QSD's proclamation that's getting circulated. Bidam got a copy. He reads it, crumples it up and slams it to the ground.
Evening: Alcheon brings welcome news. "People are gathering at the Exhibition Hall. They want to protect you and this nation from those traitors." She wants to go see what this is all about.
Simultaneously, Bidam goes to address his troops, accompanied by Yeom Jong, Misaeng and Bojong. "Our great nation is crying tears of distress," he shouts to his army. "Because of an incompetent ruler."
QSD finds the large gathering of citizens who have shown up to support the royal house. She starts to address them. "Our great nation is in distress, because of nobles who refuse to let go of anything." And now we start to cut back and forth between two oddly similar scenes:
B: "We lost the war, were belittled by neighboring countries..."
Q: "They appropriated even more from our people and sold their allegiance to our neighbors."
B: "That is how our nation fell into crisis and despair."
Q: "That is how our nation fell into a severe crisis."
B: "We shall no longer allow this."
Q: "We shall no longer idle away."
B: "I shall dethrone Her Majesty..."
Q: "We shall repel the insurgents..."
B: "And build a new nation..."
Q: "And restore order and prestige..."
B: "A new, grandiose nation!"
Q: "Prestige which will lead us to unify the Three Kingdoms!" Chants of "Hurrah for Her Majesty!"
Chants of "Hurrah for His Excellency! Hurrah for Lord Bidam!"