Another day, another drama.

In Episode 2, I felt like I was playing a murder-mystery game, instead of enjoying a kdrama. I groaned loudly in protest when I realized that our couple had less than a minute for their long-awaited reunion. I stayed up for this? I could have fast-forwarded to this?

🤪

So let me try to sort out some of the mystery in this episode.

First, although a few attempts had been made on the CP’s life, it didn’t mean that they were masterminded by the same person.

For instance, we know the ambush was a hit job ordered by Minister Kim. But the poisoning? Doubtful.

The CP believed that his father-in-law Minister Kim ordered the medical nurse to poison him. But that didn’t make sense. 🤔 The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess had produced no heir to the throne yet. If the CP was deposed while they were childless, then the CPrincess and her family would lose their connection to the throne and their illegally amassed wealth would be taken away. They were richer than the King himself.

Poisoning the CP wouldn’t be in the best interest of the CPrincess and her father. The timing was all wrong.

There were also signs that the CPrincess had no part in the scheme. First, she was upset that the medical doctor hadn’t found a cure for his illness. When she visited him at his sick bed in Episode 1, she pleaded with him to wake up because her life was in “his hands”. Then later, in Episode 2, she accused him of feigning illness to get away from his marital duties. She gave him an ultimatum to sleep together which to her supreme humiliation and distress, he rejected.

Poisoning him wasn’t something she desired to happen before their “First Night” because his death would have exposed her adultery and her illegitimate child. She wouldn’t have ordered the poison at this time.

Her father Minister Kim knew too that it was imperative that she consummated the marriage. When the CP was sick from poisoning, he fought off the clamor from the Queen’s allies to depose the CP in favor of the Queen’s own son, the second-in-line to the throne. Minister Kim knew his influence in the court would diminish without his useful son-in-law so he tamped down the dissent from the Queen’s faction.

Thus, when his daughter the CPrincess rushed to him and told him that her brazen “ultimatum” was rejected and that she was running out time, he nodded and replied that he understood. This meant that he saw the looming danger of their sham marriage. However, this didn’t mean that he knew about her extramarital affair and pregnancy. He himself was caught off-guard (note his surprised facial expression) when she told him the truth on that day she asked for her poison.

Second, her secret pregnancy was the gamechanger because it endangered the status quo. (Reminder: I’ve to explain my theory on how Jung JeYoon came up with pregnancy as the answer to the riddle.)

Once the CP figured out the real reason for her urgency to sleep with him, she and her family would be expelled from the royal court with just reasons. The Minister ordered the CP’s ambush to stop him from exposing the truth. The CP had all intentions to depose his wife and eject his father-in-law.

Whereas BEFORE the discovery of the adulterous affair, the Minister wouldn’t dare kill off the CP, AFTER the pregnancy revelation, the Minister deemed the CP as disposable or “useless” (as the stone said) because the CPrincess was already pregnant with a child that she could pass off as the CP’s.

That’s why the answer to the CP’s riddle, “To exist, To desire” was pregnancy.

For the CPrincess to exist or continue in her coveted role, she needed to become pregnant. But to become pregnant, there needed to be desire. The CP told Jung JeWoon that the answer was correct for one but incorrect for the other because he didn’t desire the CPrincess. According to him, his heart wouldn’t allow his body to move closer to her. (Or something to that effect. Lol). Remind me to explain my theory on Jung JeWoon later.

Third, who ordered the poisoning?

The most obvious culprit would be the Queen — or her designated representative, the Minister of the Right. Both of them would gain something from the death of the CP, and both of them weren’t concerned or troubled (like the CPrincess was) that the CP was getting weaker every day. The Minister of the Right himself suggested biding their time because the CP’s death was not long coming.

The Queen, not the CPrincess, was most likely the one who moved the medical nurse to the CPrincess’ residence as she had the royal authority to change and approve the personnel in the royal household.

Also, the person who ordered the poison knew that the medicine itself wasn’t toxic until taken with the CP’s favorite sweet. That person must be familiar with the CP’s food tastes — such as the CPrincess (but she didn’t want him poisoned just yet) and the Queen.

Lastly, before she was pierced by the arrow, the medical nurse was about to say the name of person who ordered the poison. She said, “It’s cruel but…”

To me, a betrayal such as this is only “cruel” when it’s done by people who display dedication and concern for the CP’s wellbeing, like the Queen who supposedly went to the temple every day to pray for his recovery. It’s “cruel” because it shatters one’s trust in motherly devotion.

Fourth, so if the medical nurse was acting on the behest of the Queen, why did the assassin who was hired by Minister Kim, kill her? Wouldn’t it have been better if she were to reveal the scheme of the Queen to the CP?

My theory here is that it was a frame-up.

The arrow was intended to link Minister Kim with the attempt to poison the CP. It was made clear (twice) that Minister had no clue at all that his special brand of arrow, the kind he used for hunting and gave as a gift to the CP was linked to the murder of the medical nurse. He didn’t know that the assassin had used it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have handed over such an incriminating evidence to the CP on his feast day. In fact, he thought that the CP was disappointed with his gift because the CP simply stared at him after seeing arrows. Clearing his throat to show sign of discomfiture, he offered to exchange them for a better set.

Then later that night, before his daughter came rushing in to complain of the CP’s rejection, he was reflecting over that incident and wondering, “Why did he look at me like that?” He didn’t know the significance of his arrows to the CP.

And we’re talking here about Minister Kim who was by no means stupid. 🧐

My second theory is that SeokWan, the son of the murdered Lord Yoon is also MooYeon, the hired assassin of Minister Kim.

As the son of the former captain of the royal army, SeokWan would be trained from an early age in swordsmanship and archery. After his father’s death and family’s ruin, it would be understandable if vengeance became his life’s mission. That would explain why he kept his sister safely hidden in the countryside and blissfully ignorant of his whereabouts for at least a decade. He needed anonymity.

But what better way to avenge his father’s murder than by striking at two of his killers with one stroke? In a way, this concept is similar to the boast made by the CP to his guard, Dong Joo during their ambush in the forest. The CP bragged that despite having only 5 arrows left, he could kill a total of 10 assassins by hitting two with one arrow.

To kill two birds with one stone needed a brilliant mastermind.

Seokwan is going to hit back hard at both the King and Minister Kim by targeting what’s most precious to them, namely, the King’s son and Minister’s political ambition, respectively. He’s going to kill the CP and ruin Minister Kim.

Thus he doesn’t need to question Minister Kim’s evil schemes. Look at it this way: if everything Minister Kim does is black as sin, then does it matter asking what shade of black it’ll be? He silently accepts evil because he knows it’s Minister Kim’s nature and because he expects to go down with him in his pursuit for vengeance.

In contrast, we see the CP wondering what drove people to do evil. He relayed a fable about the scorpion needing to ride on a frog’s back to cross a creek but it chooses to stings the frog and so they sink to their deaths.

To be continued (or not. Hahaha.) Getting 😴 now.