I have to do this write-up for Episode 12 in installments because I’ve work. 🙂

6. The Wall

While most kdrama viewers watch the scenes for “feels,” I want us bitches go up one level and to understand what we feel. For example, this moment when HongShim crouched behind the wall to hide from WonDeuk is often described as “heart-wrenching.” But for me, it makes logical sense that she hid behind that wall. lol. The cinematography here supported the story.

How so?

Because the wall was built by WonDeuk. Literally and figuratively. The writer made sure that WE remembered that point when HongShim had mulled by the wall in the previous episode. On the night she and WonDeuk went through his belongings to bring on the trip, she was admiring her wall.

WD: You must be feeling bad now that you have to leave.
HS: I have lived here for 10 years. Also, we now have a beautiful wall thanks to you. (meaning, she’d regret leaving this house that he completed for her.)
WD: Wherever we go, I will put up another one with flowers too.

Not only was the physical wall built by WonDeuk, but the emotional wall was created by him, too. He was the one who’s married to another. His political marriage had constructed solid divider between them.

So yes, it was fitting that HongShim hid behind that wall. And now his words have taken on another meaning. “Wherever we go, I’ll put up another one with flowers too.” Yes, prophetic and ironic, wasn’t it? Wherever they went, he and HongShim would always have that wall between them because he was the married Crown Prince. No number of decorative flowers could hide that.

7. Bastard JeYoon (and I’m commenting on his personality, not the accident of his birth. Don’t be a snowflake.)

Now I understand clearly what WonDeuk was trying to say here AND what was AT STAKE here.

This is the dialogue:

LY: You could still tell them. If they knew who I am, if they knew about me, they would have been shocked. You said we were friends.
JY: No, we cannot be friends. You are the Crown Prince.

Earlier I’d written in Part 1 that I interpreted JY’s “snub” or rejection of friendship as a subtle declaration that he was free to pursue HongShim.

But it’s only now that I understand what Lee Yul was REALLY asking of JY here. (Lol. See? I told you I left half my brain in that yummy limoncello last night.)

Lee Yul was asking JY to be the “intermediary” or the link between him and HongShim. He had been anxious to hear of news about HongShim. In my opinion, he only allowed JY in his room, so he could get news of her. The first thing he asked was, “What happened to her? We parted in the marketplace. We didn’t get to say goodbye. We planned to leave together when her brother returned. Did she leave the village?”

However, instead of answering him, JY lectured him on forgetting HongShim and focusing on his CPrincess. Like, who asked for his opinion?

But then Lee Yul insisted. He was essentially begging JeYoon when he pointed out that JY “could STILL tell them.” By “them,” he was referring to HongShim in particular, not the people of SongJoo.

He meant that JY could STILL pass on news to her about him.

When LY said, “If they knew who I am, if they knew about me, they would have been shocked,” he was concerned that SHE would have been shocked to discover who he was (the Crown Prince) and to learn about him (that he was married).

And when LY said, “You said we were friends,” he was letting JY know that 1) he badly needed his help and 2) he was relying on him to relay the truth to HongShim and to clear up her anxieties.

But JY said no, they couldn’t be friends because he was the Crown Prince. By this, Lee Yul understood where JY stood.

They were NOT merely talking about their male friendship.  No. They were talking about HongShim. When JY declared that Lee Yul was the Crown Prince, he was reminding LY to know his place (that he was a royal) and his marital status (married) which would preclude future contact with HongShim.

From the start, JY didn’t hide the fact that he liked HongShim even though she was already WonDeuk’s wife. But with his rejection of friendship with WonDeuk/Lee Yul, he just served him notice that HongShim was no longer his wife and that he (meaning JY, of course) could do whatever he wanted to win HongShim’s heart. JY wasn’t bound to honor any friendship between them.

Yup. JY’s a bastard all right.

More later.