I’m re-posting @nrllee’s recaps here because she did it much better than I could. Thanks, @nrllee.

I’ll just insert my thoughts here and there.

Ep13 – Hope

The theme of this episode is “hope” and the flower is the bellflower.

The first meaning of hope is linked to Lee Soo’s and Hoon’s continued deception. Hoon believed they should have told Gaedong the truth because the longer they lied, the more it became difficult to excuse their actions. Hoon told Lee Soo, “Someone told me it takes just a second to lie. But forever to be forgiven. I hope it’s not too late for either for you or me.”

In this context, hope means a desire or an expectation that will be fulfilled in the future. He hopes that Gaedong will understand and forgive them for their deception.

The second meaning of hope is connected to a lover’s wish. I find it very interesting that only two out of the three gentlemen verbally expressed their hope to their beloved. DoJoon and Hoon did. Lee Soo didn’t.

DoJoon gave Jihwa the shoes and told her, “I truly hope that you don’t get hurt while walking on that thorny path.” He knew that he couldn’t stop her from her ambition to be the queen and all he could was to wish her well.

Hoon gave Gaedong his marriage proposal and he hoped that she would come back to him.

Lee Soo did no such thing. In fact, he commanded Gaedong. hahaha.

Well….it doesn’t take a romantic to know that this won’t sit well with Gaedong and us, enlightened viewers of the 21st century.

The 2 face offs.
MH gives Soo one last chance to tell GD the truth. Hoon – it takes a second to lie, but forever to forgive. Soo threatens – To you I am just a client. Don’t make me be King 😮😬.

Hoon wanted to cancel the marriage contract because they didn’t tell the truth to Gaedong. However Soo wanted them to delay telling Gaedong the truth until Gaedong could make her own choice. “Until Gaedong can decide, let’s wait.”

JiHwa moves the noblewoman testing arena to the Queen selection process, using GD’s brother as a tool to force GD’s hand. She actually calls GD by her real name “GD” as if to say “your ruse is up. I know you are his real sister”.

YoungSoo is in a quandary about being the mole for Lord Kang. Remembering how badly he was ill treated when he was ChilNom the beggar. “ChilNom is dead, he tries to convince himself, I am Ko YoungSoo now!” He bumps into a drunk DJ at the doorway of the Flower Crew agency. DJ babbles and then starts to retch, threatening to throw up on YS’s new garment just as MH returns. A villager sees the 3 of them – I think he’s the one the Assassin spoke to? YS dismisses himself.

Yes, he’s the man paid by the the Prime Minister/Hoon’s dad to search for Gaedong.

DJ reveals to MH that JiHwa knows everything and will force GD to enter the Queen selection process so MH has “lost” his chance at getting married to her. MH looks concerned, turns around and hurries off in search of GD.

This is the third context of hope in this episode: confidence in the future.

DoJoon is telling Hoon that he has NO hope to get married to Gaedong. Because of Jihwa’s spite, his friend’s careful planning has gone awry. He thinks his friend’s future is in ruins; Hoon’s efforts are hopeless.

Another man without hope is YoungSoo. Because his past has caught up with him, he feels trapped and hopeless.

They meet up where they kissed. He draws her into an embrace. O I like this exchange. She tells him that she has to enter the Queen Selection. And then she asks him, “can I just run away? Just forget everything and run away to a place where no one can find me?” He replies, “should WE do that? 😮😍. Where should WE go then?”. She smiles, “what about the sea? It’s big and wide. No one will find us there.” He goes along with the suggestion, “yes let’s go straight away.” He grabs her hand and makes to lead her away but is prevented from doing so because she doesn’t budge.

This should be a foreshadowing.

She wants to run away with Hoon but her sense of duty constrains her. She can’t leave her brother.  Similarly, should Lee Soo order her to stay at his side, it’ll be hard for her to elope with Hoon because of her sense of responsibility.

He turns back, “you can’t move because you didn’t really mean what you said then. I know you can’t go anywhere if your brother is still here. Forget about going anywhere alone. I told you to stay by my side.” ❤️❤️❤️

Yes. That’s the reason Gaedong didn’t want to change her name and her status. If she didn’t want to *move on* with her life because she clung to hope of her brother finding her, then she wouldn’t move physical locations either.

But I thought it interesting that Hoon offered to run away. It seemed as if he was testing HIS understanding of Gaedong’s character. He wanted to know if his judgment of hers was correct.

Back at the agency, the boys concoct a plan to help GD through the Queen Selection, knowing that the stakes are infinitely higher and their lives are all at stake if their deception is revealed. MH takes GD to meet Lord Yun at his residence and he now becomes her “father” and she is to live there as his “daughter”.

Lord Yoon doesn’t look too happy with this set-up, does he? I wonder why.

Prime Minister is told by the Assassin that GD is Lady Yun and she has been turned into a noble woman by MH. He notes her name in the Queen Selection process and smiles that he has “found her” (the woman the King desires). He meets up with MH at a later time and they face off. Prime Minister threatens to reveal all and MH in turn parries with a threat to tell everyone about the Crown Prince assassination. Stale mate.

Like Jihwa’s dad who’s proud of her guile, the Prime Minister is proud of his son’s shrewdness, too. Hoon started out arrogant but his exposure to Gaedong curbed his sense of his superiority and infallibility.

Jihwa, on the other hand, resisted being changed by DoJoon. It strikes me that DoJoon brought out the bad (not the good) and destructive nature in her.

YS gets spotted whilst he’s shopping by the Officer who’s been hunting him. He denies knowing anything about ChilNom and goes into an anxiety fueled frenzied scratching again as his demons return to haunt him. He steals the booklet with all the profiles of the noblewomen (including Lady Yun) and hands it to Lord Kang. He deflects attention from the lack of detail about Lady Yun with the excuse that she’s new to the city. And reveals to Lord Kang that the “precious thing” the King left behind was MH (his “best friend”). Turns out his crime is that he killed people? He looked like he was forced to be an executioner of sorts? How does that work?? 🤔

I hope they don’t drag this story line. We know that he did something despicable before but I don’t get why the writer is teasing us with this slow “reveal” with bits of his backstory scattered here and there, instead of just one long flashback.

His side story — and his backstabbing — aren’t grabbing my attention. Just like the side story of Gaedong’s brother. I feel sorry for this actor who has to show up with this stupid look and say “Gaedong is pretty” or a variation thereof.

JiHwa looks to be pining but hiding it well. DJ comes to her house at night to talk. He announces “a war” as he tells her he will do his utmost to ensure that she is disqualified from the Queen selection. She coldly attests that she will NOT run to him (in the courtesan house) even if she were eliminated. He replies that her disqualification would enable him to chance upon her in the streets (as she won’t be Palace bound). He gifts her with a new pair of shoes (first selection is tomorrow) and gives her his best wishes nonetheless, “I hope you will not get hurt as you walk that thorny path.” She looks touched.

MH proposes to GD. I love this interchange as well. You need to watch it to get the full impact. She accepts and promises to reject the King’s proposal and return to MH because she’s already “taken”.

Day of first selections for Queen Selection. JiHwa decides to wear her own shoes and not the ones DJ gave her the night before. All the candidates arrive with their helpers/maids bar GD. GD tells JH she better keep her promise this time. MH has arranged for YS to sneak in as a eunuch to help GD. The ladies are watched constantly by the eunuchs who grade them and YS swings the votes to mark everyone else down and marks GD up. JiHwa spots GD talking to eunuch YS in private (why would they risk this is beyond me 🙄) and she recognizes YS. 3 ladies make it to the final selection. JiHwa (Lord Kang’s daughter), Another lady (Ma relative – Prime Minister), GD. The make to leave but GD can’t find her shoes (JH instructed her maid to hide them). The other 2 leave first. YS tries to find them to no avail. GD ends up heading to the next place (DaeBi testing them) shoeless and her socks are dirty as a result. JH tries to use the fact that GD came into the Palace accompanied by a man (eunuch YS) to get her disqualified. YS had met up with Soo to explain the conundrum and Soo rushes in to salvage the situation before DaeBi disqualifies her. GD finds out who he really is.

JiHwa should have been eliminated here. The last thing Daebi should have at her side is a sly and crafty woman because Daebi’s a slow-top herself.

If this had been another kdrama, JiHwa would have been labeled the evil woman by now. To me, the only reason she hasn’t been vilified is because DoJoon’s love for her shields her from the opprobrium that she deserves. Since DoJoon is hopelessly in love with her, we’re holding out hope that she’ll turn into a person deserving of him.

To me, she presents the fourth meaning of hope here: a hopeless case. lol.

That night, JH reveals all to her father Lord Kang (GD’s identity). Soo meets with GD outside the Palace to explain with some unconvincing sob story. 🙄 And then finishes off by giving her no choice in the matter at all by saying, “come to me…this is a command.” WHAT?? Way to abuse your power. 👎👎👎. Only to be foiled by MH who swoops in, grabs her by the hand and says, “you take that command back!” Soo threatens, “let her go…that’s a command”. MH calmly responds, “I refuse to”. Face off… ep ends.

Hoon doesn’t fear Soo because he knew Soo before he became a king. Really now. How could he respect him after he sniveled over his love for Gaedong?

And yeah. Boooo to Lee Soo. What a power-trip!

Funnily enough I quite enjoyed this ep. Probably because actress GD just needs to act pretty and noble…so her usual stiffness was appropriate 😂 and I didn’t find her distracting from the story line. On my oath, KMJ and his delectable voice just continues to make me swoon. 😍. Matters little if he’s dishing out promises of forever to GD or veiled threats to Soo…both are just as sumptuous.

Yes. This was standard kdrama fare.

There was one moment where I thought the editing was bad.

Hoon and Dojoon were in their office wondering how the Queen’s Selection ceremony was coming along. Somebody shouted, “We’re in big trouble!” I thought it sounded like YoungSoo, but it was never revealed what the trouble was. We all presumed that it had something to do with the Hoon’s visit to this father.

Later, YoungSoo was bragging to Gaedong how he had thought of asking the King for his help. He said, “If it hadn’t been for me, you would’ve totally been disqualified.”

He was talking about asking for the King’s intervention so Gaedong wouldn’t be disqualified because she had brought a “eunuch” to the palace. According to JiHwa, that wasn’t allowed and the Queen agreed.

However…lol…it was Hoon who sent the YoungSoo to the palace to be the eunuch.

YoungSoo didn’t know why he was being sent to the palace as the eunuch.

<b>I think</b> YoungSoo was meant to sabotage the whole ceremony for Gaedong, that is, ruin Gaedong’s chances of being selected as one of the finalists so she wouldn’t be married off the King. But YoungSoo didn’t get the memo.

It would have worked out better for Hoon if Gaedong was disqualified from contest. lol.