Links to my other posts on Ep 2:

How Master Lee conned Lady Jin: Alchemy of Souls 2: Ep 2 On Cho Yeong’s Body
On the significance of kimchee and meju: Alchemy of Souls 2: Ep 2 From the Kitchen of Park Jin

Here are the other things I think Bitches should pay attention to:

1. The Name that’s been forgotten

Last season, most of you called the female lead MuDeok. Heck, even Jang Uk called her MuDeok! I insisted on calling her Naksu as a reminder of:

a) the real person behind the new face and body, and
b) the real girl Uk was falling in love with.

I wanted no part in the erasure of Naksu.

Sure, we knew that MuDeok was really BuYeon. We also knew that BuYeon’s soul rescued Naksu and Uk from danger. And we knew that this priestess was more powerful than Naksu. But it wasn’t BuYeon whom Uk fell for. It was the cruel assassin and his strict master, Naksu.

This season, I’m resigned to people calling the female lead BuYeon. Heck, even Jang Uk will call her BuYeon.

But I’m going to call her Cho Yeong simply because that’s who she is.

Thanks to Master Lee’s intervention, not only was Naksu restored to her original body, but she was also upgraded to a new and improved Cho Yeong 2.0 version in one fell swoop.

I must say that Hong sisters’ plot twist isn’t surprising. The amnesia trope has always proven handy to any screenwriter wanting a do-over. In this drama, the amnesia reset her to her factory settings and debugged her of her system flaws which JIn Mu instilled in her. When I look at Cho Yeong, it’s entirely conceivable that the well-loved child of Mage Cho grew up to be this female adult.

Remember when I observed in Season 1 that Uk was born with the King’s Star, but Mage Cho’s daughter had a double star?

It turned out true. See that? Anybody can be a royal astrologer.

To me, it’s important to call her by her real name because it’s the forgotten name. While the name Jin BuYeon remains in everybody’s memory (thanks to her crazy mom) and is now on everybody’s lips (thanks to the bride abduction), the name Cho Yeong has all but disappeared.

If she’s going to get justice from the terrible deeds that Jin Mu as well as the Four Great Houses of Daeho did to her and her family, then her name must be remembered. It must be brought out of the shadows and into the light. After all, she is the last surviving member of her clan.

So like they say in England, Cho Yeong is dead! Long live Cho Yeong!

2. The tracking device

The sight of Lady Jin stitching on Cho Yeong’s back should have been repellent to watch. But frankly, I didn’t think the VISUALS differed much from a tattooist sticking his needle on a client’s body to apply a permanent decoration.

What sets Lady Jin’s tattoo apart, and what makes it objectionable, is the fact that Cho Yeong didn’t have a say in it. Lady Jin decided to give her permanent seal on Cho Yeong’s body, and Cho Yeong yielded to her because she was being a dutiful daughter.

Lady Jin: Let us tie it so that it can never break off again.

The thing is the magic thread is breakable. Uk broke the thread on her bracelet without problem.

Cho Yeong: People from Jinyowon will come and they will know it was you who took me. When they come, I will tell them that we got married overnight.
Uk: This means I cannot send you back quietly.
Cho Yeong: (showing the wristlet) This thread comes from Jinyowon. And no sword is strong enough to cut it. Jang Uk. I do not wish to go back. I like it here. And I like you too.

Sidenote: I like this change in her. Back in Season 1, it was hard to tell whether Naksu liked Uk. She was so wishy-washy. Remember Naksu’s recruitment flyer that served as her de facto love letter to Uk? I got tired after she dodged the issue and made him doubt that she had feelings for him.

Uk’s response to Cho Yeong’s declaration was to bring her wrist up to her face, lean in, and —?

Well, what do you think did he do after that?

Did he blow on the bracelet? Did he kiss the bracelet? Did he bite the thread with his teeth? Or did he kiss her hand thereby enacting the first skinship of the Season?

It’s anybody’s guess.

We do know these three things:

a) this scene is where the concept of this poster came from.

source: soompi

b) and that the stone on the bracelet lit up when he brought the bracelet close to his lips. When it dropped to the floor, the light on the stone extinguished.

c) and Uk wiped his mouth. 🤪

Wiping his mouth implied that his lips touched her skin, and he didn’t like it. 🙄🙄

Now, just imagine now what he’ll do with the magical thread on Cho Yeong’s back. Will he blow, kiss, bite it? I’m definitely looking forward to that.

Hahaha. 😈

Heck! Now I’m regretting that Lady Jin didn’t stitch that thread on a more intimate part of her body.

3. Threesomes

In Season 1, I stated my position on this. In Season 2, I have not reversed my position.

Backstory: once I watched that scene in Ep 5 when Naksu had a dream of meeting MuDeok, I realized that she wasn’t alone in her body. And this was my reaction back then.

Naksu’s dream

As Naksu sleeps, the aura hovers above her body.

She then begins to dream. In her dream, she’s still inside MuDeok’s body but she sees the original MuDeok, with the gauze covering her eyes, before her.

Here are some of random explanations I can throw out:

a. This is “Mr Queen” all over again. The two-souls-residing-in-one-body crap.

b. Naksu is becoming aware of the terrible thing she did to the original MuDeok. Her eyes widened then…

she looked in pain.

c. This is the “energy of the sky [which] rules the wind, clouds, and rain” manifesting itself in her dreams.

d. The original MuDeok is some sort of deity.

e. There’s energy in the Danhyanggok that’s waking her up or activating her extra senses.

My theory C proved correct.

As it turned out, the original MuDeok was some sort of deity. She had DIVINE powers, right? She was considered to be the most powerful priestess in DaeHo since the original Jin Seolran. Even as a young priestess, she has the power to summon the energy of the skies.

Which leads me to believe that Jin BuYeon’s disappearance plays a major factor in the three-year drought in DaeHo.

Cho Yeong now faces the challenge of summoning the energy of the skies. Since she isn’t BuYeon, she technically does not have such summoning ability. However, in her first encounter with Jang Uk in her Jinyowon prison cell, she said something noteworthy.

Uk: Hey, Lousy Priestess. Step back unless you want to end up like that fire poker. I am not used to having people stand so close.
Cho Yeong: (backing away then spotting the ice stone) That is a pretty stone. You must have the energy of the sky.

That’s significant to me.

As she isn’t a real Jinyowon daughter, she doesn’t have the priestess-ly powers of Jin BuYeon to summon the energy of the skies.

However, as Cho Yeong, she does have her own unique energy. It’s that same MIRACULOUS energy that made her survive being petrification.

More importantly, she can summon Uk. Why summon the energy of the skies, when Uk already possesses the energy of the skies in him? Uk will do anything for her.

Now, this is my policy statement on threesomes.

I abhor threesomes.

I can say this because this is my blog. The concept of souls of MuDeok and Naksu co-inhabiting MuDeok’s body is a big nope for me.

The problem with a threesome is often overlooked by undiscriminating viewers. Look here: when Uk falls in love with his master/maid, who is he really in love with? Naksu’s soul or MuDeok’s soul?

Clearly, it’s Naksu’s soul.

I don’t care how the Hong sisters romanticizes this, it isn’t possible for Uk to fall in love with MuDeok’s soul when he hardly knows her. All this time, there’s only one soul he’s been interacting, bantering, sparring, arguing, and connecting with. It’s Naksu’s soul who happens to reside in MuDeok’s body.

Should Naksu’s soul somehow get transferred to another body in the future, then I hope that Uk will recognize her, despite the change in her outward appearance. She’s his soulmate in the literal meaning of the word.

The theory of MuDeok’s soul cohabitating with Naksu’s soul may be acceptable to others, but once Uk kisses, caresses, or makes love with Naksu, it’s too disgusting for me to think that:

a. there’s no privacy or intimacy between the couple,
b. he’s unknowingly kissing, caressing, and making love with MuDeok as well,
c. MuDeok’s soul is trapped to accept his kisses, caresses, and bodily fluids,
d. nonconsensual sexual act is once again normalized.

I don’t care what other people’s fetishes are but the idea of a three-way skinship is as icky as making love to conjoined twins.

#Sorrynotsorry

The names and bodies may have changed, but this holds true now more than ever.