Title: Again, to Survivors

I like shows with titles that indicate the events to happen. The previous week’s Episodes 7 and 8 had the title, “A Night of the Wandering Fate” and this week we see the aftermath of that ill-fated night. To the survivors, Lee Geum, Moonsoo and Yeoji, that fateful night was marked by the deaths of the most important people in their lives.

To Lee Geum, it was the death of his father, the King, and his younger brother, Prince Yeonryeong. Distraught that his young brother’s murderer, Prince Milpoong, would get away with the heinous crime, he confronted Prince Milpoong’s backer, Minister Min. But Minister Min lectured him, “Whether Prince Yeonryeong died a mysterious, sudden death or was murdered, whether there’s another reason or not, politics is what determines the answers as needed.”

In essence, Minister Min was saying that the “ends justifies the means.” The facts surrounding the young prince’s death were irrelevant. What matters was how his death could be made politically expedient and beneficial to the Norons. The end goal was to solidify the power of the Norons, not bring to justice the young prince’s murderer. And if the method to achieve their goal was to whitewash the truth about Prince Yeonryeong’s death, then so be it.

Further, Minister Min threatened Lee Geum, “You shall live, Your Highness. Even in this state, because you’re a royal. But if you dare to go further out, what do you think will happen to your playmates?” Lee Geum worried for his friends Yeoji and Moonsoo, “Not them, they are all I have left. Don’t touch the remaining ones.”

Minister Min laid the blame for the crisis of that fateful night at his door, “If it weren’t for you, Inspector Han could have lived. Didn’t that thought ever occur to you? Why didn’t you at least dream of becoming the king? If you became the king, even if just a little bit of it, you might have gotten something called power. Why? Even if you have lowly blood running in your body, nominally you are a royal, too, aren’t you, Your Highness?”

To me, the director made a deliberate and symbolic scene of Lee Geum collapsing to the muddy ground.

Did you get it?

As Lee Geum rolling in the mud, he replayed in his mind Minister Min’s words about dreaming to become a king. Why didn’t he aspire to become a king and acquire power to protect the people he cared for when he was a royal himself?

The answer there is the mud. He didn’t think of becoming a king because he viewed himself as impure, “muddy” because he had the misfortune of being the child of a low-born. The aristocratic, pure-blooded ruling party also viewed him as mud and scum. His birth was scandalous as the king consorted with the filthy lower class. And now that the Minister Min’s words had sunk in, he was going to roil the palace politics with his presence.

To Moonsoo and Yeoji, it was the death of good Inspector Han JungSuk. They survived JungSuk’s death and vowed to avenge him. Yeoji swore to keep investigating until she found the criminal who killed JungSuk. Moonsoo demanded, “How can a trash like you keep law and order? You just wait and see. I’m going to enter this place without fail and wipe out all of you! The ones dying then will be you!”

To me, two interesting things happened in the depressing opening segment of Episodes 9 and 10.

One was Moonsoo appearing on the scene as Yeoji was being manhandled by Bad Investigator. He ran to her, screaming her name after she’d been attacked already. lol. He always does that: arrive AFTER the fact. When did he ever come in the nick of time to rescue her?

Then, the other interesting thing was Lee Geum sending a young boy with an umbrella to Yeoji. She was standing in the rain outside the Saheobu with a sign, “Please investigate the wrongful death of Inspector Han JungSuk.” The child told her, “Excuse me, some noble man asked me to give this to you.”

She looked around but could see no one.

That scene foreshadowed Lee Geum’s watching over his friends from the background during the entire year he went AWOL from them. At his behest, YeoJi was hired to work in a nobleman’s house and paid handsomely despite her disastrous culinary skills. Then, Moonsoo was being monitored by his roommate as he prepared for the civil service exam. That was the reason his roommate looked at through his notes – to see if he would pass the exams. Not only that, on the day of his exams, a seat was saved for Moonsoo (by his roommate?? I’m so poor with facial recognition!). Moonsoo would discover later that his seat-saver had been bribed precisely to help him during test day.

But I’m glad that Lee Geum had put to good use this year away from his friends. He paid attention to the Good Investigator’s counsel that facing the problem was easier than retreating and ignoring it.

And I’m surprised that he actually had the talent and instinct to predict the political schemes of his enemies. Unlike Dalmoon who had insider’s knowledge of the behind-the-scenes moves, thanks to his informants, Lee Geum was able to deduce the plot by knowing the personalities of all the major characters, like Minister Min, Prince Milpoong,  the Bad Investigator and even Dalmoon. He then could counter their maneuverings with a clever one of his own. He was always a step ahead of them.

That’s why I like these episodes. I don’t feel like I’m cheering for the JV team playing politics, but the Varsity team, taking on the bad guys.  Now if only Dalmoon would join their side, then we’d have a Dream Team going on.