Post by ajk on Jul 4, 2014 23:59:56 GMT -5
National mourning for the departed queen. The country must really have grown to love her; look at all the flowers and offerings that the ordinary people are leaving at the palace gates. Unfortunately Won Hyeon and Gong Cheol are still working the crowds, trying to use Noguk's death to stir up unrest against the powerful elites. Lee In Bok happens to be there and gets a first-hand look at it.
The palace gates are still shut from the inside, we learn, and Gongmin still won't release his wife's coffin for burial. The officials are getting frustrated at this point.
Choseon's estate: Oh it wasn't just Won and Gong; others from their group (not exactly sure what to call their group at this point) were in on it too. They're getting a big laugh out of all the deception they're creating. Inside, Choseon is talking to Park Seobang. She's happy to see the outpouring of love for Noguk; thinks it will only help secure SD in his position. Then she adds, "The deeper the sorrowful abyss His Majesty falls into, the easier our goals will be fulfilled." Hmmm...why is this starting to feel like she's scheming something? She has a history of insurrectionist thought, doesn't she...
Now the high officials are beyond frustrated; they're dumbfounded and at a total loss. It's been two days and the king hasn't budged. Lee In Bok wonders if Gongmin is putting on a show to get everyone to accept SD as regent! Later when he's talking to Choi Young they both say they won't accept him in such a role, but we learn that the majority of the court does! The agree that stopping this is going to be up to the military.
SD has gone back inside Gongmin's palace, where Gongmin is still sitting by Noguk's casket. Gongmin has calmed down at least, thank goodness. SD is in there asking Gongmin to give him control of the military. Says that the Red Turbans have been unified again and they may be giving the Yuan big trouble soon. "is this not the perfect opportunity to reclaim Goguryeo's lost territory?"
Now Lee In Bok and Choi Young are speculating that SD might tear the country apart entirely, eliminate the noble class and give power to slaves. Choi wonders if trying to get rid of SD would be considered treason. Lee laughs. "Trying to displace a ruler is called treason, but it is not treason when it is a country you wish to displace. That is foundation!" Hmm, some strange logic there.
Back inside the palace, SD presses Gongmin, who wonders if Choi Young will cooperate. SD suggests that even the Yuan territory may be available for the taking! Isn't that a bit much? But it makes Gongmin's mind wander...and it occurs to him that it would be sweet payback for what he went through as a hostage there. Right now it's only a pipe dream, but the idea does seem to give his mind some sudden clarity. He looks over at Noguk's casket. "May your final journey be a peaceful one, my dear," he says, delicately stroking the lid. "I shall always be by your side." Is he ready to let go?
Apparently so, because SD steps outside the palace and gives instructions for getting the funeral rites underway. To great relief from the officials.
And they're underway. Mourners are at the royal temple paying respects...so many ordinary people. Monks offering prayers, officials and attendants all in white; a shrine set up in Noguk's palace.
Choseon warns SD that as soon as the funeral is over, he's a target. "So before that happens, you must accomplish all our goals." But for some reason he's distracted and not really listening to her...and now a flashback that shows us why. It's Noguk's death. He was there. He's sitting in the room as Gongmin holds his dying wife's hand. "Forgive me," she tells her husband; "I wanted to bless you with an heir." Then she reaches out to SD with her other hand and asks him to hold it. She reminisces about the first time she met him in Yanjing, and the advice he gave her, and how valuable the advice proved to be. "More than the Mongol plains that gave birth to me, Goryeo gained an even bigger place in my heart." SD starts to cry. "Do not weep, Pyeonjo Seunim. You should only weep for our people." She puts her husband's hand and SD's hands together. Promise me this, she begs them as her voice weakens: "You must join your forces, and open the gates of a new world." A country more like Goryeo used to be at the time of its founding, without the severe class divisions that exist now. And regain the northern territories, she says. "If the new world made no distinction between people, would the people of the north refuse to be part of your dream?" Promise me you'll do it, she whispers. They do, and she thanks Gongmin with tears in her eyes. "And may you forgive me." Forgive what? Gongmin never finds out...because her eyes close and she breathes her last.
"He wants to build connecting caves between tombs?!" Secretary Gyeong and Inspector Kim are getting fed up with the extent of Gongmin's grief. But no more talking; a full court meeting is about to start. Gongmin strides purposefully into the council hall. Interestingly, SD isn't sitting by Gongmin like he had been since being named regent. Why not? No explanation, not for the moment. Gongmin begins by announcing he's given his wife the posthumous title of "Great Princess Noguk." He continues, "Some say my sorrow is unconscionable, but it does not even begin to quantify this loss. Compared to the love Princess Noguk had shown for this country, even all the rivers of creation would not suffice to contain my tears. I shall escort her to the foot of Mt. Bongmyeong, west of Mt. Songak, shall pray for her peaceful journey to the netherworld at Unam Temple, and remain with her until the sorrow beclouding me leaves the sky." He's going to leave the palace and stay at a temple? This doesn't sit well with anyone; Secretary Gyeong tries to talk him out of it but Gongmin ignores him and continues without missing a beat. "Not only that! We shall erect a royal hall in honor of the Princess, so that her spirit shall protect our nation for eternity." Well, okay...no one is sure what to make of it, but it doesn't sound unreasonable. "Until that day, I plan to entrust all state matters to Shin Don." Well THAT sounds unreasonable! At least to the officials it does. And as SD kneels before Gongmin, Gongmin starts presenting him with official scrolls of appointment:
--Prime Minister Plenipotentiary
--Commander in Chief of the Council of Generals
--Grand Preceptor of Religious Affairs
--Supreme Commissioner of Science and Cultural Rites
The officials are in total shock. They don't even speak; just wide-eyed stares. Gongmin concludes, "Shin Don is now the incarnation of your ruler, so from here on in, his garments, protection and treatment shall echo what would befit your King!" Well now even SD is dumbfounded by it all. It's an incredible assignment of power and responsibility. And in the next moment, we see SD is escorted out of the palace...carried in a covered chair, wearing a regal robe, and with the local citizens going wild with excitement.
Afterwards, the officials are trying to make sense of it all. Some of them think it's all just honorary and temporary and no big deal; others disagree. Secretary Gyeong is so insulted by it that he threatens to quit and retire to the countryside. He's really angry.
SD is taken back to Choseon's estate, where everyone enthusiastically greets the new prime minister.
Of course Inspector Kim goes right to the QD and has a meltdown. Of course she's not happy about it either.
Unam Temple: Gongmin is gazing at one of the portraits he painted of his wife, admiring her beauty. Lady Kim is attending to him and she does her best to console him and offer comforting words. Gongmin loved his wife so much, we can see...he keeps touching the portrait, utterly heartbroken that she left him.
Choi Young has arrived at Choseon's; apparently SD summoned him. Won Hyeon receives him with a smart-aleck remark and a smarmy smile. Clearly unhappy, Choi goes inside and sits before SD. SD gets right to business. Japanese pirates have made advances in the west and SD wants Choi to go there and take charge. "Is it a royal command?", Choi asks. "I shall only follow a royal command." SD snaps back at him, "My every word is a royal command!" Oh, is that necessary? "Kim Yong and Jo Il Shin used His Majesty's confidence to plot treason against him," SD says angrily. But he has reason to be angry; he knows things. Specifically that Choi created "a faction amongst military officials, and they pledged allegiance to follow your orders over those of His Majesty." Yikes! Choi doesn't deny it. You're lucky, SD continues, that I don't send you to a low-level assignment in a remote outpost. "But I shall give you a final chance. Just because we shall soon deploy troops for our Liaodong campaign, and it would be difficult to find a military leader such as you." Now go do your job, he says. Choi stands up, furious at what he thinks is SD's arrogance. So SD turns and picks up a sword that Gongmin gave him--"So that I could behead anyone defying my command on the spot." That shuts Choi up.
Gongmin has a visitor: Princess Deoknyeong. He doesn't care. He's had a meal prepared and is eating it while he sits before Noguk's portrait. Oh no wait...he's trying to feed her! Talking to it like it's the real person. He's completely consumed by his one-sided conversation with the portrait, but eventually he turns to Deoknyeong and tells her about his honeymoon in the plains, which we saw. The princess tries to convince him to return to return to the palace. "Subjugate the great north, or begin your reforms...Your Majesty must be the one who decides upon such matters." But he won't. "Who is going to look after her? I shall not return." Uh-oh...and he goes back to offering the portrait food.
SD's next visitor is Deokun, who's going over some sort of thin book that SD has given him. A roster of all of the nation's temple leaders. Some of the names have been marked; SD explains that those leaders are "descendants of powerful clans, and are charlatans owing their ordainment to their kin alone, so do not allow them access to the temples any longer." Deokun is flabbergasted because there are a LOT of marked names. "You cannot do this?," SD fires back. "Then I will have to entrust control of the Royal Temple to Jihyo." The comment stuns Deokun, who apparently is hearing for the first time that he's SD's choice to replace Master Bou and run the royal temple.
Choi departs for his assignment. He reassures Lee In Bok that Gangwha Island, where he's headed, isn't far away and he can return if things get dicey. But he isn't worried either way; he says nobody in the military acknowledges SD as their leader.
Royal Temple: Now Master Bou is looking at the marked-up list of temple leaders. Jihyo points out that the marked names, well, "These are all followers of yours, Your Eminence. Unless he wanted to close all those temples, he would never do this." Jihyo begs Bou to act, but Bou says he's retiring for good and never coming back.
Now what's this? SD is visiting the QD. Three women are sitting in the room as well: Hyebi is one, and then the two women we met in Episode 45 as prospective consorts: the daughters of Lord Jukseong (An Geuk In) and Lord Deokpung. "We cannot go on without a queen for long," the QD tells SD. I won't interfere in any other state matters, she tells him, "but we cannot continue without a mother of state." So apparently she wants SD to talk Gongmin into accepting one of the three as a new queen. Good luck with that!
SD leaves her and walks outside into the evening. He passes the queen's now-unoccupied palace and decides to go inside. Then a weird sequence where he finds himself imagining Noguk is still there and conversing with him about state affairs.
Next day: Oh this is not good: Word has arrived from Gangwha Island that the Japanese pirates stole a portrait of Emperor Wang Guhn's father. This is a huge affront, clearly. How could Choi have let this happened? That's the question right now.
Later, Word arrives that SD ordered Choi arrested and imprisoned! And now we see a whole group of men--Choi's subordinates, apparently--being tortured! "Who will be the first to speak the truth?" says Lee Chun Bu, who's overseeing the whole thing, to the group. "All those trying to protect Choi Young will face a swift demise!" As for Choi, he's sitting alone in a jail cell. Secretary Gyeong and Lee In Bok can't even get in to speak to him. So Lee says he's going to try to talk to Gongmin and complain about it.
Meanwhile, Lee In Im is sucking up shamelessly to SD. SD sees right through it. He asks Lee, "I plan to reinstate the Directorate for Reclassification of Farmland. What are your thoughts on the matter?" Lee hesitates; seems oddly uncomfortable and uncharacteristically tongue-tied. SD continues, "This time I shall rummage every corner, so that they will not be able to hide a single grain." From his glare at Lee as he talks, he obviously thinks that Lee is hiding something.
Guess what--he is! Ha! Lee leaves SD and heads right to a warehouse he owns, a warehouse full of valuable items of all sorts. He actually opens it up to the local citizens and tells them to take anything they want! So of course they do. And then in a panic, he orders his attendants to bring him all of his slave records, undoubtedly so he can destroy them or (less likely) turn them over to SD for processing.
Lee In Bok is at Unam Temple now, but Gongmin is bowing and praying to the portrait and really doesn't care who's here. Not interested in what's going on in Gaegyeong or who got arrested. Lee presses him to confirm that Choi's imprisonment is Gongmin's wish. Gongmin looks at him and snaps. "Choi Young is starting to resemble Kim Yong and Jo Il Shin! I shall once and for all rid myself of all the insolence of those military officials!" So there.
Nighttime: Lee Seong Gye's and a whole group of his subordinates and soldiers have shown up at Choseon's house! Quite a sight, right there in the middle of a capital street. Seong Gye wants to see SD. With Seong Gye asking to see SD. "Wasn't he a wicked monk called Pyeonjo?," he asks Won Hyeon impertinently. "He must reveal the reason why Choi Young was incarcerated! Should he have falsely accused him out of personal resentment, he shall first go over our dead bodies to punish him!" He says all this loudly enough to make sure SD can hear it inside. And yes he can; SD is listening.