Post by ajk on Aug 16, 2013 20:45:43 GMT -5
Beautiful scenes of Pyeonjo walking through the countryside, with spring flowers in bloom all around him. He reaches a building with a small shrine, in a tiny village. He encounters a young boy and tells him he's looking for Master Bou. After repeatedly ignoring him, the boy points to his right, as in, go that way. So he does, and finds Bou tending some planted crops. We're at Mt. Soseol, we learn. Pyeonjo sits down, pulls out his lunch and starts to eat. It's chicken (No kidding!). He starts to talk to Bou about Buddha...but Bou doesn't seem to care that he has company at all. Bou finishes his work and simply walks away, without even a glance in Pyeonjo's direction.
Pyeonjo follows him to a stream where he washes his hands. Still trying to talk the guy up..trying and trying...no response...
Now Pyeonjo's sitting and focusing very, very hard on a big boulder. And cracks it! Through sheer force of will. (UGH.) Bou sees that...and keeps right on walking. Sheesh, what does it take to get a reaction out of this guy?
So Pyeonjo goes back home...and finds Won getting stick-smacked by Wolseon! "Damn you, you little fool! How can you steal all of Buddha's provisions little by little? You little lying rascal!" What's this about? Whatever, it must involve Pyeonjo, because the sight of him sends Wolseon and his assistant screaming at him. So Pyeonjo runs away....
"When will you stop throwing dirty laundry at me and act like an adulterer?!" Who is this older woman Pyeonjo has run into? "If you need it so much, why don't you hide those ladies where he can't find them? If the Master finds her here, we're both dead, you fool!" Pyeonjo calls her "auntie"; she's not his blood relative, but "when my mother was alive, you treated her like a sister." Anyway, it sounds like he and Won brought the girl Eun Young to her.
Yeah, they did. Pyeonjo finds her inside a hut; auntie says she's been gagging--from morning sickness. Whatever she's gagging from, mentally she's even worse. She's sitting there in a corner, gone fetal and not making eye contact. And acting very scared. Auntie says there are a lot of guards looking for the girl and she can't stay here long. Pyeonjo talks to her and gets her to open up. Preggers it is. She's in tears. "I don't care what happens to me. Just save my baby, I beg you." It triggers a flashback..."Noble blood flows through your veins." It's the young boy Pyeonjo; his mother is there and it looks like she's on her deathbed. Revealing some deep secret to a boy clearly too young to grasp its significance. "If I die, just forget me. Bury me deep in the mountains, and erase all your memories." The boy is in tears, understandably traumatized. "Don't cry, you fool! You're alone here. Nobody will listen to you. I'm a lowly slave...But... your father...Your father was of noble birth." With that, she weakens and fades out....Eun Young crying in front of him, something brought that moment back. "If anybody asks," he tells her, "just say the child is mine." For whatever reason, the offer is uplifting, we can see it in her face. Pyeonjo leaves her...
...and outside is surprised to find Wolseon standing there. Wolseon pushes past Pyeonjo and finds the girl inside.
Evening, back at the monastery: "You silly fool. You can't even manage yourself, now you do charity?" Pyeonjo is kneeling before Wolseon and is getting scolded for all the trouble he's gotten into. "I should have let you die...That day I should have just moved on, and none of this would have happened." Pyeonjo answers, "Isn't this all karma? You saving my mother, then raising me like a father, and now saving this lady I brought here. That's destiny, too." Just please hide her until the coming winter has passed, he asks. Wolseon doesn't like the analogy...and says he can't help the girl, and can't help Pyeonjo either. Can't, or won't? "Go live with that lady in the secular world." Wolseon thinks the baby is Pyeonjo's; he doesn't know the girl's full story. For some strange reason Pyeonjo thinks Wolseon will do what he asks anyway, and kneels and thanks him for it--even though it sure doesn't look that way to us. Wolseon didn't say any such thing.
Now back to Bou's shrine, and the pointing kid again. This time towards a cave in the woods. Bou is sitting in there mediating; Pyeonjo goes in and sits down behind him. And starts telling him about his parents (during mediation? Rude!). That his mother was a slave at Okcheon Temple. A visiting government official lied his way into her bed and slept with her...and when she went to visit him, he refused to see her; and upon hearing she was pregnant, "he ordered his servants to take her up the mountains, where they cut her up and left her dying under straw mats." Only the thought of the child in her womb kept her from accepting death, he says, and she "just happened to catch the attention of a monk passing by..." That was Wolseon, obviously. "I can't save myself. how can I possibly save you?" Hey, that was Bou! Bou speaks at last. Maybe the story touched him, or maybe he's just annoyed. Whatever, it's enough that Pyeonjo sits down with his back to Bou and starts to meditate on his own. Weird.
Gaegyeong: Gi Cheol has been summoned to see Princess Deoknyeong. Outside, eunuch Choi Man Saeng is already waiting there and is pacing around. What's up? Gi goes inside...
...and is presented with a bowl of poison! A grim-faced Princess Deoknyeong tells Gi, "They used all sorts of herbs, yet there was no improvement whatsoever...So I got suspicious and used a hairpin to check. It was drenched in gleaming poison!" As in, that poor kid King Chungmok who just can't get healthy--they've been poisoning him with what's supposed to be his medicine. Good heavens. Call the physicians in immediately, Gi advises. She's ahead of him: "I already did that. They decided to die in torture than open their mouths." (Just when you thought being a royal physician couldn't get any lousier.) "There must be someone scarier behind the scenes, " she believes. So I'm getting my son out of here--right now, in the nighttime. And right then and there, they put the king and his mom into a gama and head for Deokkyeong Palace. That's where the empress dowager lives. "The only place where I'll find people worth trusting."
Word of this gets back to Lady Yoon--Gi goes and tells her--and she's not happy. She thinks something's up to deny the boy Kyeongchang (King Chungmok's brother) the throne. But Gi laughs it off, because he knows it's all up to the Yuan empress--his sister. Not gonna go against them if she's calling the shots, is it.
King and mother are graciously welcomed by the boy's grandmother. It sounds like this is the first time she's ever seen the boy! And it probably is; remember that she got kicked out of the palace after her husband married the Mongolian princess. The kid is too weak to react. She orders him brought inside, and orders her staff to bring in some healthy food for him.
Now we see king and mother inside. "I need to be strong, and live long." Hey look at this, the kid looks a little livelier already; just the change of scenery did him good. "If I die now," he tells his mother, "who will protect you?" And encourages her to be strong, just as she's encouraged him.
Yuan capital, Goryeo Village section: Nighttime and there's a big commotion out there in the street. It's Prince Gangneung, sitting at a cafe table amazing the locals with his capacity to knock back the booze. They're even betting on him knocking back one more and one more. And he just keeps rolling...until finally he passes out. And is this ever bad timing...because An Dochi brings him news that he needs to go to Heungseong Palace and see the empress. "Her Majesty promised to send you back to Gaegyeong!" The opportunity he's been waiting for. But now a big, angry-looking guy who lost money on the drinking-betting is making trouble, accusing Gangneung of drinking watered-down drinks. Or something like that. He and his goon friends want their money back. And Gangneung probably doesn't have any, or at least not enough. But wait, of all people to be out there in this place at this hour, Botap Shili is sitting there in the middle of all this. Dressed in plain clothes and with just one attendant. She tosses a bag of money at the big whiner, and he and his cronies walk away satisfied. She looks at Gangneung, puzzled. "Where did all the fire that stopped my arrows go? And why are you getting pushed around by hoodlums now?" And she smiles at him! Wow, that's hardly the same attitude she gave him earlier. She and her attendant walk away; Botap tells her "I had a debt with that man." What debt? Uh-oh, save that for later because now the big whiner and his cronies have come back and now they want to rob her. Then they realize she's a woman, and now they think they'll do more than rob her. So they start coming at her, and she proceeds to fight them all off (ugh). It helps that they come at her one by one (UGH!). But then the goons' swords come out and she's about to get carved up. Suddenly arrows start flying in and injuring the goons. It's the Crown Prince Qunluan, on horseback, with a squad of horseman/archers. What the heck is he doing here? (This is all very weird; not a good scene.)
Gangneung is back home on his front porch. His three visitors from Goryeo, Kim Yong, Jo Il Shin and Jung Se Woon, are there with him, as are the prince's eunuch An Dochi and minister Lee Je Hyeon. The empress's attendant, Park Bulhwa, is there too, so apparently he does need to go see her sooner rather than later. Unfortunately he's still completely tanked. So Jo Il Shin grabs a bucket of water and tosses it right on the prince! Good idea; doesn't seem to have much effect, though. And they can't bring him to the empress in the morning, because she's turned into a night owl and doesn't go to sleep until morning. Soon the prince perks up a little, but only enough to stagger inside and presumably to crash out in bed. Minister Lee is left to think...Flashback to Lee visiting the Empress Dowager; he's brought he daughter Lee Hyebi with him. His host tells him she's decided to accept the girl as her daughter-in-law! No Mongolian women for my son, she says, angry as heck about what the Mongolians did to her. "From this day on," she tells the girl, "you can call me Mother"...Flashback ending, well look at this, Gangneung steps back outside and he looks completely in control of himself. Wow, whatever his hangover remedy is, it's a miracle. "Thanks to your contempt," he tells the men on his porch, "I've sobered up. I will be thankful forever." He leaves his confused visitors behind and heads off with Lee to see the empress. Lee reminds him to show proper respect, but with what's at stake here, he doesn't need any reminding. "Don't worry. I'll even lick her feet if that's what you want." (Hope that's not what he wants.)
We see the emperor now. He's sitting at a table, with Crown Prince Qunluan at his right and Botap Shili at his left. He's concerned that the Mongols have gotten soft here in this fertile country and is wondering if they should go back to their homeland. The crown prince thinks nothing of that idea but Botap is all for it. But then the prince decides he likes the idea after all, which makes Botap so happy that she gets up and shows him a traditional Mongolian dance. (Not much of a dance, really, but nobody's complaining.)
Showtime. Empress Gi, a cloud of some make-you-happy substance floating around her, is looking at Prince Gangneung and smiling. "Come closer." He does. "I was born of humble blood," she tells him. Then again, "Come closer." he does. "Let's see... What were you whispering around about me? This lowly wench from Goryeo, who got chosen and sold to the Yuan, found Lady Luck behind the corner and gained a seat next to the Emperor. Is this right?" Uh-oh...we did hear him say something very much like that, didn't we...but he doesn't respond, and from her goofy smile it doesn't seem to bother her. And finally he answers her: "How could I possibly show contempt for Your Majesty's lowly upbringing, when I was taken hostage here just like you?" Attendant Park doesn't like that, apparently just for daring to speak back to her, and tells the prince to get on his knees, which he does. The sight of it amuses her. "Give me your hands." He offers her one and she takes it. "They are softer than a woman's touch." Ouch. "If I give you Goryeo's throne, what will you do for me?" What else can he say? "Anything you wish, Your Majesty." "Even if that means your life?" He looks at her quizzically. "Oh... not that far?" Keeping his wits, he wisely tells her "More than that!" Are you willing to see blood on those beautiful hands?" Huh? "That blood might come from your parents, or maybe even your children. That's what power means...You'll have to bask in hypocrisy your entire life." So she's judging him by his hands? "You want to sit on the throne with those hands? Don't make me laugh." Really? That's it? "Leave!" The prince tries to protest, but that won't do any good. So he leaves, looking stunned.
"My brother saw through him indeed," the empress tells Park. "A hint of sorrow lies behind that mean-spirited face. Would I give someone like that the throne? Nonsense." She laughs...
...a laugh that reaches out into the front yard where Gangneung is standing with Lee. The prince seethes. "I won't forget this humiliation till the day I die."
Gaegyeong: It's the following year now--1348. The announcement is going out: the king is dead. Poor kid, just couldn't get his strength back. We see Gi Won on horseback, with other men on horseback and ordering a building they've arrived at to be sealed off and guarded. You have to think this is where the king's brother is.
We see Princess Deoknyeong grieving over her dead son's body. Elsewhere we see the empress dowager grieving too, both about her grandson's death and her son's unhappy fate.
A new face: Yoon Shi Woo. A minister allied with Lady Yoon, who he's with now. Yoon is confident that she and not Gi Cheol will be the regent now, with the new king.
Wow, look at Yeom Je Shin--stopping the king-to-be's procession in its tracks! He's a tough character, no question. Gi Cheol is leading the procession on horseback; he's getting the boy Kyeongchang to Yanjing right away to get the kid crowned king. This is at the Yuan emperor's order, Gi claims. And Yeom isn't on horseback, so he can't exactly hold the procession back, and with that they blow by him and head out.
Back to Bou and Pyeonjo in the cave, seated and facing away from each other. Looks like they've been at this a while now, long enough that Pyeonjo keeps nodding off. But suddenly Bou starts giving advice: "It starts with your thoughts. It is full of joy and happiness." Pyeonjo is stunned to hear the words.
Now they've waded into a pond near a waterfall and are relaxing in the water. "How come you didn't send me away even though I insulted you on so many occasions?" Bou answers, "Why should I send away those looking for me?" (That's a dumb answer, isn't it?)
And now Pyeonjo is leaving. Bou has to ask him about what he saw earlier: "Did you really split rocks at the glitter of your eyes?" No, Pyeonjo answers, "If I had such talent, I would have split this world into two already. You got fooled, my Master!" It puts a smile on both their faces. (But we saw it too--did we get fooled?)
On his way home, Pyeonjo hears steps...and wisely dives off the road and into the brush just as a squad of horsemen races by. They're soldiers--and they head into a village. Pyeonjo scrambles to an overlook to see what's going on. Now here's Jihyo the monk, who apparently escaped the scene and has been awaiting Pyeonjo's return. We can see the soldiers ransacking the place and roughing up the villagers...including monks and women. What's happening here and why?
Pyeonjo follows him to a stream where he washes his hands. Still trying to talk the guy up..trying and trying...no response...
Now Pyeonjo's sitting and focusing very, very hard on a big boulder. And cracks it! Through sheer force of will. (UGH.) Bou sees that...and keeps right on walking. Sheesh, what does it take to get a reaction out of this guy?
So Pyeonjo goes back home...and finds Won getting stick-smacked by Wolseon! "Damn you, you little fool! How can you steal all of Buddha's provisions little by little? You little lying rascal!" What's this about? Whatever, it must involve Pyeonjo, because the sight of him sends Wolseon and his assistant screaming at him. So Pyeonjo runs away....
"When will you stop throwing dirty laundry at me and act like an adulterer?!" Who is this older woman Pyeonjo has run into? "If you need it so much, why don't you hide those ladies where he can't find them? If the Master finds her here, we're both dead, you fool!" Pyeonjo calls her "auntie"; she's not his blood relative, but "when my mother was alive, you treated her like a sister." Anyway, it sounds like he and Won brought the girl Eun Young to her.
Yeah, they did. Pyeonjo finds her inside a hut; auntie says she's been gagging--from morning sickness. Whatever she's gagging from, mentally she's even worse. She's sitting there in a corner, gone fetal and not making eye contact. And acting very scared. Auntie says there are a lot of guards looking for the girl and she can't stay here long. Pyeonjo talks to her and gets her to open up. Preggers it is. She's in tears. "I don't care what happens to me. Just save my baby, I beg you." It triggers a flashback..."Noble blood flows through your veins." It's the young boy Pyeonjo; his mother is there and it looks like she's on her deathbed. Revealing some deep secret to a boy clearly too young to grasp its significance. "If I die, just forget me. Bury me deep in the mountains, and erase all your memories." The boy is in tears, understandably traumatized. "Don't cry, you fool! You're alone here. Nobody will listen to you. I'm a lowly slave...But... your father...Your father was of noble birth." With that, she weakens and fades out....Eun Young crying in front of him, something brought that moment back. "If anybody asks," he tells her, "just say the child is mine." For whatever reason, the offer is uplifting, we can see it in her face. Pyeonjo leaves her...
...and outside is surprised to find Wolseon standing there. Wolseon pushes past Pyeonjo and finds the girl inside.
Evening, back at the monastery: "You silly fool. You can't even manage yourself, now you do charity?" Pyeonjo is kneeling before Wolseon and is getting scolded for all the trouble he's gotten into. "I should have let you die...That day I should have just moved on, and none of this would have happened." Pyeonjo answers, "Isn't this all karma? You saving my mother, then raising me like a father, and now saving this lady I brought here. That's destiny, too." Just please hide her until the coming winter has passed, he asks. Wolseon doesn't like the analogy...and says he can't help the girl, and can't help Pyeonjo either. Can't, or won't? "Go live with that lady in the secular world." Wolseon thinks the baby is Pyeonjo's; he doesn't know the girl's full story. For some strange reason Pyeonjo thinks Wolseon will do what he asks anyway, and kneels and thanks him for it--even though it sure doesn't look that way to us. Wolseon didn't say any such thing.
Now back to Bou's shrine, and the pointing kid again. This time towards a cave in the woods. Bou is sitting in there mediating; Pyeonjo goes in and sits down behind him. And starts telling him about his parents (during mediation? Rude!). That his mother was a slave at Okcheon Temple. A visiting government official lied his way into her bed and slept with her...and when she went to visit him, he refused to see her; and upon hearing she was pregnant, "he ordered his servants to take her up the mountains, where they cut her up and left her dying under straw mats." Only the thought of the child in her womb kept her from accepting death, he says, and she "just happened to catch the attention of a monk passing by..." That was Wolseon, obviously. "I can't save myself. how can I possibly save you?" Hey, that was Bou! Bou speaks at last. Maybe the story touched him, or maybe he's just annoyed. Whatever, it's enough that Pyeonjo sits down with his back to Bou and starts to meditate on his own. Weird.
Gaegyeong: Gi Cheol has been summoned to see Princess Deoknyeong. Outside, eunuch Choi Man Saeng is already waiting there and is pacing around. What's up? Gi goes inside...
...and is presented with a bowl of poison! A grim-faced Princess Deoknyeong tells Gi, "They used all sorts of herbs, yet there was no improvement whatsoever...So I got suspicious and used a hairpin to check. It was drenched in gleaming poison!" As in, that poor kid King Chungmok who just can't get healthy--they've been poisoning him with what's supposed to be his medicine. Good heavens. Call the physicians in immediately, Gi advises. She's ahead of him: "I already did that. They decided to die in torture than open their mouths." (Just when you thought being a royal physician couldn't get any lousier.) "There must be someone scarier behind the scenes, " she believes. So I'm getting my son out of here--right now, in the nighttime. And right then and there, they put the king and his mom into a gama and head for Deokkyeong Palace. That's where the empress dowager lives. "The only place where I'll find people worth trusting."
Word of this gets back to Lady Yoon--Gi goes and tells her--and she's not happy. She thinks something's up to deny the boy Kyeongchang (King Chungmok's brother) the throne. But Gi laughs it off, because he knows it's all up to the Yuan empress--his sister. Not gonna go against them if she's calling the shots, is it.
King and mother are graciously welcomed by the boy's grandmother. It sounds like this is the first time she's ever seen the boy! And it probably is; remember that she got kicked out of the palace after her husband married the Mongolian princess. The kid is too weak to react. She orders him brought inside, and orders her staff to bring in some healthy food for him.
Now we see king and mother inside. "I need to be strong, and live long." Hey look at this, the kid looks a little livelier already; just the change of scenery did him good. "If I die now," he tells his mother, "who will protect you?" And encourages her to be strong, just as she's encouraged him.
Yuan capital, Goryeo Village section: Nighttime and there's a big commotion out there in the street. It's Prince Gangneung, sitting at a cafe table amazing the locals with his capacity to knock back the booze. They're even betting on him knocking back one more and one more. And he just keeps rolling...until finally he passes out. And is this ever bad timing...because An Dochi brings him news that he needs to go to Heungseong Palace and see the empress. "Her Majesty promised to send you back to Gaegyeong!" The opportunity he's been waiting for. But now a big, angry-looking guy who lost money on the drinking-betting is making trouble, accusing Gangneung of drinking watered-down drinks. Or something like that. He and his goon friends want their money back. And Gangneung probably doesn't have any, or at least not enough. But wait, of all people to be out there in this place at this hour, Botap Shili is sitting there in the middle of all this. Dressed in plain clothes and with just one attendant. She tosses a bag of money at the big whiner, and he and his cronies walk away satisfied. She looks at Gangneung, puzzled. "Where did all the fire that stopped my arrows go? And why are you getting pushed around by hoodlums now?" And she smiles at him! Wow, that's hardly the same attitude she gave him earlier. She and her attendant walk away; Botap tells her "I had a debt with that man." What debt? Uh-oh, save that for later because now the big whiner and his cronies have come back and now they want to rob her. Then they realize she's a woman, and now they think they'll do more than rob her. So they start coming at her, and she proceeds to fight them all off (ugh). It helps that they come at her one by one (UGH!). But then the goons' swords come out and she's about to get carved up. Suddenly arrows start flying in and injuring the goons. It's the Crown Prince Qunluan, on horseback, with a squad of horseman/archers. What the heck is he doing here? (This is all very weird; not a good scene.)
Gangneung is back home on his front porch. His three visitors from Goryeo, Kim Yong, Jo Il Shin and Jung Se Woon, are there with him, as are the prince's eunuch An Dochi and minister Lee Je Hyeon. The empress's attendant, Park Bulhwa, is there too, so apparently he does need to go see her sooner rather than later. Unfortunately he's still completely tanked. So Jo Il Shin grabs a bucket of water and tosses it right on the prince! Good idea; doesn't seem to have much effect, though. And they can't bring him to the empress in the morning, because she's turned into a night owl and doesn't go to sleep until morning. Soon the prince perks up a little, but only enough to stagger inside and presumably to crash out in bed. Minister Lee is left to think...Flashback to Lee visiting the Empress Dowager; he's brought he daughter Lee Hyebi with him. His host tells him she's decided to accept the girl as her daughter-in-law! No Mongolian women for my son, she says, angry as heck about what the Mongolians did to her. "From this day on," she tells the girl, "you can call me Mother"...Flashback ending, well look at this, Gangneung steps back outside and he looks completely in control of himself. Wow, whatever his hangover remedy is, it's a miracle. "Thanks to your contempt," he tells the men on his porch, "I've sobered up. I will be thankful forever." He leaves his confused visitors behind and heads off with Lee to see the empress. Lee reminds him to show proper respect, but with what's at stake here, he doesn't need any reminding. "Don't worry. I'll even lick her feet if that's what you want." (Hope that's not what he wants.)
We see the emperor now. He's sitting at a table, with Crown Prince Qunluan at his right and Botap Shili at his left. He's concerned that the Mongols have gotten soft here in this fertile country and is wondering if they should go back to their homeland. The crown prince thinks nothing of that idea but Botap is all for it. But then the prince decides he likes the idea after all, which makes Botap so happy that she gets up and shows him a traditional Mongolian dance. (Not much of a dance, really, but nobody's complaining.)
Showtime. Empress Gi, a cloud of some make-you-happy substance floating around her, is looking at Prince Gangneung and smiling. "Come closer." He does. "I was born of humble blood," she tells him. Then again, "Come closer." he does. "Let's see... What were you whispering around about me? This lowly wench from Goryeo, who got chosen and sold to the Yuan, found Lady Luck behind the corner and gained a seat next to the Emperor. Is this right?" Uh-oh...we did hear him say something very much like that, didn't we...but he doesn't respond, and from her goofy smile it doesn't seem to bother her. And finally he answers her: "How could I possibly show contempt for Your Majesty's lowly upbringing, when I was taken hostage here just like you?" Attendant Park doesn't like that, apparently just for daring to speak back to her, and tells the prince to get on his knees, which he does. The sight of it amuses her. "Give me your hands." He offers her one and she takes it. "They are softer than a woman's touch." Ouch. "If I give you Goryeo's throne, what will you do for me?" What else can he say? "Anything you wish, Your Majesty." "Even if that means your life?" He looks at her quizzically. "Oh... not that far?" Keeping his wits, he wisely tells her "More than that!" Are you willing to see blood on those beautiful hands?" Huh? "That blood might come from your parents, or maybe even your children. That's what power means...You'll have to bask in hypocrisy your entire life." So she's judging him by his hands? "You want to sit on the throne with those hands? Don't make me laugh." Really? That's it? "Leave!" The prince tries to protest, but that won't do any good. So he leaves, looking stunned.
"My brother saw through him indeed," the empress tells Park. "A hint of sorrow lies behind that mean-spirited face. Would I give someone like that the throne? Nonsense." She laughs...
...a laugh that reaches out into the front yard where Gangneung is standing with Lee. The prince seethes. "I won't forget this humiliation till the day I die."
Gaegyeong: It's the following year now--1348. The announcement is going out: the king is dead. Poor kid, just couldn't get his strength back. We see Gi Won on horseback, with other men on horseback and ordering a building they've arrived at to be sealed off and guarded. You have to think this is where the king's brother is.
We see Princess Deoknyeong grieving over her dead son's body. Elsewhere we see the empress dowager grieving too, both about her grandson's death and her son's unhappy fate.
A new face: Yoon Shi Woo. A minister allied with Lady Yoon, who he's with now. Yoon is confident that she and not Gi Cheol will be the regent now, with the new king.
Wow, look at Yeom Je Shin--stopping the king-to-be's procession in its tracks! He's a tough character, no question. Gi Cheol is leading the procession on horseback; he's getting the boy Kyeongchang to Yanjing right away to get the kid crowned king. This is at the Yuan emperor's order, Gi claims. And Yeom isn't on horseback, so he can't exactly hold the procession back, and with that they blow by him and head out.
Back to Bou and Pyeonjo in the cave, seated and facing away from each other. Looks like they've been at this a while now, long enough that Pyeonjo keeps nodding off. But suddenly Bou starts giving advice: "It starts with your thoughts. It is full of joy and happiness." Pyeonjo is stunned to hear the words.
Now they've waded into a pond near a waterfall and are relaxing in the water. "How come you didn't send me away even though I insulted you on so many occasions?" Bou answers, "Why should I send away those looking for me?" (That's a dumb answer, isn't it?)
And now Pyeonjo is leaving. Bou has to ask him about what he saw earlier: "Did you really split rocks at the glitter of your eyes?" No, Pyeonjo answers, "If I had such talent, I would have split this world into two already. You got fooled, my Master!" It puts a smile on both their faces. (But we saw it too--did we get fooled?)
On his way home, Pyeonjo hears steps...and wisely dives off the road and into the brush just as a squad of horsemen races by. They're soldiers--and they head into a village. Pyeonjo scrambles to an overlook to see what's going on. Now here's Jihyo the monk, who apparently escaped the scene and has been awaiting Pyeonjo's return. We can see the soldiers ransacking the place and roughing up the villagers...including monks and women. What's happening here and why?