If you’re uninterested in the palace politics like me, then Episode 14 is a good time to check out the lay of the land. We’re seeing the true motivations of the characters and the final shift in strategic alliances.

Here is where things stand and begin to fall apart:

1. On Dal’s Sunno tribe won a major victory against an invading army from the North. As a reward, the King restored their land and tribe reinstated in the King’s council. (lol. The council has a round table like in King Arthur’s Camelot but the five three tribal leaders are more scheming). The tribe relocates to stay within the castle walls. Dal’s adoptive mother and the little kid stay behind in the Ghost Village.

The Sunno tribe leader was tasked by Pyeonggang to get the salt mines back from the crooked council and returned to the King’s hands. The council had no choice but to cede to his demand since they knew that Pyeonggang was behind this, and she was a rising power behind the throne.

Here’s the old character chart. I replaced On Dal’s pic with the new actor.

2. The King had the Cheonjubang tribe leader in custody but General Go Geon kidnapped him.

The Cheonjubang leader has a murky history with the King. He used to be a respected shaman/monk for the King. But he fell in love with one of the priestesses. On the night that his woman gave birth to his child, the King’s soldiers raided their hut. Mother and child died so the priest swore vengeance.

He saw his chance when he found the young Pyeonggang (aka Gajin) who lost her memory. He trained her to be assassin so she would one day kill her own father.

His plan boomeranged though, since Pyeonggang regained her memory and now stood by her father’s side. She almost stabbed him to death if Dal hadn’t stop her. He’d already killed the Cheongjubang’s right-hand man and didn’t want Gajin to go on killing.

To me, Dal doesn’t want Gajin to revert to her old assassin ways, so he’s doing all the *necessary* killing.

3. Moyang the Herbalist was told by her adoptive father, the leader of the Sono tribe, to stay away from the General Go Geon. Her father warned her that Pyeonggang was in a fierce fight with the Gyeru tribe over political control, and Moyang’s affair with the General Go could hurt her and endanger their own tribe. She refused.

As if her one-sided love for the General Go wasn’t problematic enough, her own Silla people kidnapped her and returned her to the Kingdom of Silla for retribution for messing up with their plans. Before she was decapitated, the King of Silla himself summoned her to the castle.

King: There’s no need to be concerned about King Uiduk of Baekje because of his indolent nature. The plains of Goguryoe were also busy taking care of their own business. But do you know what is getting in the way of my cause to unify the three kingdoms?
Moyang: How dare I venture a guess at the answer?
King: It’s Pyeongwon’s daughter, Pyeonggang. Whose son is the guy she got married to? He’s the son of On Hyeop, the former head of the Sunnobu of Goguryeo. He was at the borders defending against Silla…Right. She took in a tiger cub and raised him as a general. She helped her pathetic father and stopped Northern Zhou. I don’t feel comfortable about what else she’ll do.
Moyang: Then?
King: Go back to Goguryeo for the great cause of the Three Kingdoms. Go back and kill Pyeonggang.

In effect, Pyeonggang has acquired two enemies: an internal enemy with Go Won Pyo as its “face,” and an external enemy coming from the Kingdom of Silla, with Moyang as its “face.”

I’m ambivalent about Moyang’s character. Her entanglements, both romantic and political, will soon be the death of her.

Apart from her skill in poison, she wields no real power of her own. She relies on her wits to survive one threat after the another. She’s used by everybody in the story (except by Dal) but then she manipulates people, too. She’s treated like dispensable goods when she has outlived her purpose.

I don’t know whether General Go will treat her better in the future despite still being obsessed with Pyeonggang, and whether she’ll use her connection with General Go to fulfill the King of Silla’s command. Theirs is a dysfunctional relationship, and I don’t see how they can make this work.

4. General Go is the most conflicted character in this drama, but for the life of me, I couldn’t relate to his tortured soul.

— With his father. He despises his father, Go Won Pyo, for his political maneuverings but he, too, engages in his own double-dealings, and uses his father to get ahead of the game. He’s playing it both ways.

— With Moyang. It’s obvious that Pyeonggang is still numero uno in his heart when he rushed to the border to help out Pyeonggang. But then, he isn’t entirely impervious to Moyang either because he went to search for her when she was kidnapped.

— With Pyeonggang. He doesn’t want to see her endangered. I think he’s the most honest and forthright whenever he talks with her. He doesn’t lie to her like he does with Moyang. However, given who his father is, Pyeonggang can’t trust him. Her inability to trust him is what eats him up and corrodes his character. He does all these shady things, in the hopes that he can make her change her mind. But he ends up endangering her, and falling even further in her estimation. He’s proving her right not to trust him because an apple doesn’t fall from the tree.

I wish he’d just pick a lane and stay in it.

5. Go Won Pyo admitted to the Queen that he’d known all along that the Queen’s son was really the King’s son, and not his own, as the Queen purported. He’d been using her in the same way she’d been using him. The Queen wanted the Crown Prince eliminated so her own son could ascend the throne. She told Go Won Pyo that the child was his because she believed Go Won Pyo would do anything to get his own flesh-and-blood on the throne.

Duh. How could she have missed Go Won Pyo’s mindset? He didn’t care about his sons. He wanted to seize the power for himself, not for his sons.

This character is really a dreadful waste of screen time and acting talent. He only comes out to show this evil glowering and menacing look on his face. At least, Homer Simpson danced.

6. The Queen vs Pyeonggang

When I see Pyeonggang gets played by the Queen and Go Won Pyo, it makes my blood roil. Pyeonggang thinks she’s smarter than her father and won’t be fooled like her father, but she’s constantly outfoxed by the two. I hope she wizens up in the last episodes.

Clearly, she doesn’t have the inside track on palace politics. A prudent move for her would have been to consult with the King’s loyal adviser. Since she needs to get more people on her side, she can cultivate a relationship with like-minded ministers and courtiers.

Her best friend reminded her that Dal feels lonely inside the palace. Well, I think Gajin is also struggling in the palace. But mostly I think this is of her own doing. Her leadership style is to fly solo and bear things on her own. Perhaps this is remnant from her days of being an assassin of the Cheongjubang, when she had to do things secretly on her own. But there’s something imperious and high-handed about the way she does things inside the palace because she’s THE royal princess.

She’s a consensus-builder when she’s among the villagers but she’s autocratic with people of her own rank.

7. On Dal

I’ll agree with @nrllee’s comment here:

I really like NIW as OnDal. I felt sad for him in Ep 14 whilst he was in the Palace. He is being looked down upon by everyone. Crown Prince doesn’t seem to like him much even though he was rescued by GJ and OD. The concubine sneered at the jade bracelet half that he proudly displayed to her as a sign of his husband status. Like the girl twin said, OD is lonely in the Palace. He makes the most of it but you can see that he’s struggling to keep his spirits up. He was so happy and at ease when he ducked back home to try to get Mother to come to the capital to live. In spite of all that I must say NIW is a striking figure in the General’s armor. His height and broad shoulders make him formidable. I am hoping against the odds that the writer will pen a different ending to the real story.

The near-death scene we saw in the beginning of this drama happened during Dal’s battle against the invaders from the North. That event already played out in Episode 13, and he survived. Since we know that his death in battle is an intrinsic part of his heroism in the folktale, I don’t see how the writer can alter the ending. But yes, I do wish he didn’t have to die. lol. If the actor had been Jisoo, I wouldn’t have minded if he died. But with Na In Woo, I feel a tinge of reluctance to see his character die again after “Mr Queen.”

To me, the Crown Prince’s condescension and the concubine’s mockery are meant to set the “low bar” of expectations for Dal. I wouldn’t be surprised if the writer intended them to eat crow later on, and regret looking down on him.

So bring it on.