This is how I understand things as of Episode 3.

The lady in the pavilion is the current Queen. She and the King were talking about their baby who died.

King: What are you doing here?
Queen: I realized I was pregnant, only after I followed Your Majesty out of the palace during the war. I couldn’t eat anything but what Lady Kim brought, this okchundang is the only thing I could stomach. Do you remember, too, Your Majesty?

Unless the writer is trying to troll us, this is the link between the Queen who craved the candy when she was pregnant and Nokdu who happened to like the same candy. He’s eating the same candy on his birthday which was also his death-day.

King: You always make it so obvious every year this way. So how could I not remember?
Queen: If he had lived, would he have loved these okchundang, too?
King: (looking at wife) He died. He has passed away. Please stop.
Queen: (pleading voice) As soon as he was born, he died. What’s the reason I can’t long for him? Why do you loathe it so much?

I can think of four reasons why the King doesn’t want to talk about it.

One, he’s concerned about the mental health of his wife. She hasn’t gotten over the death of their son after two decades.

Two, he feels guilty for not saving their son. He delegated the task to his loyal friend, and his friend and his son died on that day.

Three, he can’t unburden himself to his wife about the consequence of not having a male heir to pass on the throne. They could be ousted as King and Queen once a Crown Prince, from a new bloodline, has been installed.

Four, the Minister and his spies are always listening.

There are probably other reasons, but that’s all I can think of right now…without coffee.

King stands up to leave Queen. He encounters the Minister and they stare at each other.

This is the Minister who, years ago, during the rebellion, went after the King’s loyal friend and Nokdu’s surrogate dad, Jung Yoon Jeo, intending to kill him. But instead he let JYJ go free.

Hearing the baby Nokdu cry was the pivotal moment for him. He had a crisis of conscience so instead of killing JYJ and the baby, he let the two go free.

He told JYJ, “Go. I’ll tell him that the child died and that you buried him. And that you fell in the water after I cut you with the sword. Live like you’re dead. Like you’re dead.”

But now this Minister is plotting a coup against the King. He wants the King replaced by the King’s half-brother.

This lady taking an evening stroll with the young prince is the former queen, the wife of the late King. She’s the Dowager. Her son is the half-brother of the current King. That’s why the King called him “Little brother.” Since the king has no (known) heir, he’ll the successor to the throne should the current King die or be deposed.

The ex-queen and the young prince are afraid of the current King. The current King seemed to be threatening them when he told the young prince to be careful of his health. “It’ll be terrible if you catch a cold. A unexpected bad luck comes without a sound.”

The Minister and his white-robed plotters discussed designating the young prince as Crown Prince soon. The Minister said the King has been getting rid of those supporters of the young prince, one by one, by charging them with treason. They could be next. Thus, there’s a need to move the young prince’s installation as Crown Prince.

The Minister said, “I was going to wait for the royal prince to grow up more, but I don’t think we can wait any longer. We’ll have to move things forward.”

Nokdu’s appearance, however, changes the whole succession. As the legitimate son of the King, he’ll inherit the throne. That’s why the assassins were sent to the island to kill him.

But Nokdu was trained to defend himself well while living in isolation in that island. Thank goodness!

The unknowns:

1. Who are these two people? Are the King’s men or Nokdu’s dad and “father-in-law”?

2. The Amazon island?

The King’s guard said there was an island where only women lived. The King didn’t know about this.

Are the women loyal to the King or to the Minister? Most likely they’re the Minister’s people because they’re Muwoldan too. The Muwoldan can be found in the Widow’s Village and on the Amazon island.

Minister: The body disappeared?
Aide: Yes. When they went back, he (Nokdu) was gone.
Minister: The sponsor of the meeting told me that he definitely died…He tracked Muwoldan by faking his death. (If so), he’s already at the Widow’s Village.
Aide: But it’s a place where men can’t enter.
Minister: He can easily hide at the courtesan house or anywhere nearby. Tell them to look for him thoroughly. What happened to the king’s people who went to the island?
Aide: We sent them elsewhere and only Muwoldan remains. So, he won’t be able to find out anything.
Minister: What about the rest who ran away from the island?
Aide: All the widows spread out everywhere and will start looking for them, so it shouldn’t be for long.
Minister: You must find every one of them without fail, understand?

3. The dream sequence in Episode 1

It’s tricky to interpret dreams. Freud tried it, lol.

credit: savagechickens.com

 

In my first post, I said we couldn’t be sure whether dream sequence was his repressed memories of an actual killing or merely a figment of an over-active imagination.

It could very well be a suppressed desire. It’s possible that he wants to kill *A* baby (not necessarily his baby, but his baby brother) because it’s a threat to his position.

4. Is this story fictional?

Yes. The king’s name and circumstances may sound familiar but I doubt that the writer is following history.