Sorry. There’ll be no pics for this one because I had technical difficulties uploading the lovely screenshots.  I tried and failed. But I’ll edit when I get home tonight.

Remember I only know three Korean words that are applicable to this kdrama:

Nahri which means Lord,
Orabeoni which means Big Brother
and Saranghaeyo which means I love you

I don’t claim to be correct in anything here. If you want real recaps, go to a reputable site. This is the scandalous “bitches ‘r us” site.

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The King and Nokdu meet each other at the temple entrance. Nokdu doesn’t recognize that he’s the king so he hesitates. He does notice that he’s wearing a different outfit from the white-robed coup-plotters and the ninja people inside, so he doesn’t let him in. Guards step in with swords raised to his neck.

The temple door opens again and the lead female assassin peeks out. She recognizes the king and lets him in. But the temple has now been cleared of everybody except for female temple worshippers who are kneeling for prayers. The head assassin sees droplet of blood on the floor — in plain sight of King but quick-thinking Nokdu kneels down in front of it to hide the stain.

Meanwhile somewhere in the gisaeng’s compound, Prince Yulmo and the Minister are having tea. (How civilized!)

Yulmo: My Orabeoni!
Minister: My Nahri!
Yulmo: Saranghaeyo!

I think Yulmo is saying that he doesn’t have to be the king. He’s just kidding in the other episode when he told the Minister to make him king. Because he’s found the real heir to the kingdom. Then Nokdu’s foster brother comes out.

There’s a flashback of (most likely) Yulmo as a boy with his father. He’s been told stories like those “urban legends” we have nowadays, that an heir to the throne was born but the king disposed of him. His bodyguard found him in the woods.

All three men face each other.

NO: The foster brother isn’t the king’s son. It’s Nokdu because of his birthday. Remember? He said that was the only thing his “father” told him. His birthday is special because he was supposed to have died on that day.
The 19th day of the 11th month.

lol. That’s why I’m guessing that Yulmo doesn’t know that the Hyung is lying. But I’m sure he’ll figure out that connection between the birthdays because he mentioned it in another episode. That Nokdu’s birthday was the same as…(and he stopped in mid-thought).

That night, Nokdu arrives late. The two girls are already in bed but DongJu insn’t asleep. She’s recalling the scene with Yulmo earlier when he entered her dark room. (No. He didn’t accost her. Thank goodness!)  But he said something to her that made her tear up. Nokdu heard their conversation from outside the hut and he’s upset.

DongJu: What are you doing here?
Yulmo: Why? You can’t stop me from entering your room. You didn’t stop Nokdu, didn’t you?
DongJu: But that’s different. I let him stay because he’s my Omoni.
Yulmo: Then, I’m your Orabeoni. Are you leaving?

That’s why Nokdu gives her the cold-shoulder and goes to bed without talking to her. He knows something’s up between the two of them. But he’s gotten the wrong end of the stick again.

But when he goes to bed and ignores her, she starts to argue with him.

DongJu: How rude! How come you’re not even greeting me? Where have you been?
Nokdu: You’re ruder! And I’m not telling you anything.
DongJu: But you promised to tell me everything.
Nokdu: Look who’s talking! You also promised me not to hide secrets from me.
DongJu: I did?
Aengdu: Will you two be quiet! Somebody’s trying to sleep here.

The next morning, they bicker at breakfast time.

DongJu: (standing up to leave) Ugh! I can’t stand this. I’m leaving.
Nokdu: Where are you going?
DongJu: Stop being clingy. Why do you need to know?
Nokdu: Fine! Go wherever you want. See if I care.
Aengdu: Will you two be quiet! I can’t eat with you two arguing.

But her rice bowl is empty.

Then, Aengdu and DongJu end up in the kitchen to look for their Orabeoni. She’s dying of hunger because she didn’t eat much while the two were arguing at breakfast.

Somewhere, in the royal palace, the Minister and a sidekick are talking about Brexit. lol.

Sidekick: Don’t you think we should replace this Boris with this Prince Yulmo?
Minister: It’s never a good idea to exchange a tinpot dictator to a real psycho dictator.
Sidekick: What about Xi Jinping?
Minister: What about Lebron?

Meanwhile, the three Musketeers/assassins are now joined by Nokdu and the Boss/Lady Chun/Head Gisaeng. They’re talking about Brexit, too, or to be more exact Villag-exit. They’re leaving the Widows’ town because they’re now under the King’s radar.

Nokdu talks with his Master, Aengdu’s dad. He looks sad. Probably because he and Dongju have been doing nothing but fight all the time. His Master tell him to not be discouraged.

Nokdu goes to look for them in the kitchen and he looks scared to knock on the door.

The door suddenly flings open and two girls flee from an explosion. They almost burned the kitchen down because of their lack of cooking skills. Nokdu offers to cook for them, while Dongju scrapes the bits of explosives off the wall.

Note to myself: Rice pancakes can be deadly weapons.

Aengdu nags Nokdu about a day-out. Nokdu says it’s a bother. But Aengdu now has learned a sure-fire method of getting Nokdu to do what she wants: sibling rivalry.  

Aengdu: You’re no fun. The other orabeoni would have taken us out to an outing.
Nokdu: Anything he can do, I can do better. Let’s go.

Meanwhile, YoonJoo, the foster father, is being treated like a guest at the Minister’s house. Even the Minister’s henchman is at his beck and call. He serves YoonJoo with a sumptuous spread.

YoonJoo: Where are my sons? Where is the Royal Prince? Why are there always people missing around the king?
Minister: That’s why I’m hiding you here. I don’t want to lose you, too. Saranghaeyo.

Nokdu’s family is having a beautiful day by the water again. She carries the fishing pole, while he holds the hand of Aengdu. He carries Aengdu in his arms over the rocks and offers his hand to Dongju to help her over. She snubs in and steps over the rocks herself. Then, she (accidentally?) knocks Dongju on the head with the fishing pole.

He fishes at this scenic spot in the river.

DongJu: That’s not the way to fish!
Nokdu: This is silly. I know a better way to catch fish.
DongJu: Sure. Like with your bare hands?
Nokdu: Yes. I can do it with my bare hands.
Aengdu. Will you two please stop arguing! You’re giving me an upset tummy.

Next scene: she’s eliminating waste in the bushes while Dongju starts guard. Dongju sees Nokdu fall backward into the water and starts running to help him. She’s screaming his…name?? She doesn’t know his real name so she’s saying “Hey!” “Hey, you.” in Korean.

She starts to cry thinking he’s drowned, then he pops out in front of her with a tilapia. (Tilapia?? They have tilapia??)

It’s obviously a dead fish because it’s not wiggling. And he’s shocked to see her crying.

They dry up on land. He puts his coat on top of her. They go home and she’s sniffling. He gives Aengdu an apple to get her out of the way (An apple?? They have an apple?). He sits her down, and exchanges her wet sock for dry one.

Ahhh! I know what he’s doing! It’s this superstition that if you let wet clothes dry on you, you’ll get sick.

DongJu: Stop this. I wish you’d stop doing these things for me.
Nokdu: Why? Because you only take care of things that you like?
DongJu: No…
Nokdu: Why? Because you’ll get attach to me if I do things like this and we have to leave each other anyway?
DongJu: Because I think this is useless.
Nokdu: Just promise me then to take care of yourself so I won’t have to worry about you.
Dongju: Whatever.
Nokdu: (yelling after her) Do you promise? Yah! Do you promise? Why is it so hard for you to promise something so trivial.

Meanwhile the evil people start moving their pawns on the board. Yulmo moves his Head Gisaeng. The King moves his Village Administrator.

Nokdu and Yulmo cross path. Yulmo grabs his hanbok and threatens him about something. Probably to lay off DongJu. Nokdu swats his hand away and tells him to butt out of things that don’t concern him. Nokdu leaves him.

DongJu is at her batcave getting her things ready. Ah! She’s leaving. She’s going to do her mission then. And she starts to cry. She cries for her omoni, too. And she remembers the first time she met Nokdu in jail.

Back in their bedroom, Nokdu is preparing to leave too. He closes the door on her, then changes his mind and open the door again to bid her his final adieu.

DongJu: What? Did you forget something?
Nokdu: If you need me, you know where to find me.
DongJu: No, I don’t…I mean, I don’t know where to find you. Come to think of it, I don’t even know your name.
Nokdu: Then just call me, maybe.

The following day, DongJu and Yulmo meet. DongJu is crying big fat tears, and Yulmo is wiping them. I don’t think she’s crying for him but for Nokdu.

**If I understand her mindset correctly, she’s been picking fights with Nokdu so leaving him will be easier.

Yulmo tells her not to cry anymore and arranges to meet her at the swing that afternoon. He pays a group of mercenaries to burn the widows’ village down, thinking that DongJu will be gone and out of the village by then.

But when she doesn’t show up on time at their designated meeting place, he rushes back to the village on his horse to save her.

He sees Dongju being grabbed by the throat by a mercenary. He’s too far to save her.

Let’s stop there for a moment and see what Nokdu’s doing. The editing is rather disjointed for this episode, so people like me can get dizzy following the sequence of events. scenes.  

While all this is happening, Nokdu is spying on the Minister. Lady Chun/Head Gisaeng brought Nokdu with her earlier that day to visit the Minister. Lady Chun and the Head Gisaeng are discussing plans to hide or disperse the widows whom the King suspects of plotting a coup against him.

After their meeting, Nokdu follows the Minister and overhears him giving an order to a troop of male assassins to kill a person from the “island.” Nokdu correctly guesses that it must be one of his family members so he follows them. He takes down one of the assassins to borrow the ninja clothes for disguise.

They arrive at Yulmo’s residence where his bodyguard is waiting to greet them with his sword. It’s like 10,000 men vs 1 bodyguard, and the bodyguard wins. Oh nooo. I hope Nokdu doesn’t have to face this killing machine ever.

While they’re fighting outside, Nokdu enters the home looking for his family. He meets his Hyung who had been talking with Yulmo. His Hyung and Yulmo seem to be BFFs, nowadays but I wouldn’t trust Yulmo if I were him.

Yulmo has conveniently escaped (or exited?) the room leaving the two brothers to talk freely.  Nokdu is pretty tearful to be reunited with his Hyung but Hyung tells him to get the hell out of there.

Nokdu: Why are you saying this?
Hyung: Because this is all your fault. This is all because of you.
Nokdu: What do you mean?
Hyung: You’re the king’s son.
Nokdu: Are you out of your freaking mind?  We’re brothers. Same mother, same father.
Hyung: No. We’re not, dude. Didn’t you hear mom’s dying words? Why do you think nom said that? You’re the King’s son, and that’s why we were hounded. So leave now while you still can.

Nokdu then goes back to the Minister’s residence. Nokdu realizes the Minister is the key to everything. He’s about to attack the Minister when Lady Chun comes screaming her head off that the widows’ village is under attack. I don’t know if Lady Chun recognizes him in his ninja outfit.

Nokdu rides his horse back to the village.

And… this is where Yulmo’s and Nokdu’s convergence point happens…

As the mercenary is slowing squeezing the life out of DongJu, Dongju tears up and remembers her last conversation with Aengdu. She’d given the child money to buy treats in the market. But she was also bribing her. (Grrr. This Aengdu is as corrupt as anybody. lol.)

DongJu bribed Aengdu to reveal the name of her Orabeoni. And that’s how she knew his name.

“Nokdu” was her last word before she loses consciousness.

Blood splatters on her face and Nokdu catches her as she falls to the ground. He looks down at her like he’s about to cry, then he looks up and glares furiously at the sight in front of him.

Ha! I hope it’s Yulmo. This massacre is on him.