Updated 3/17/2023: Per @Cleopatra’s instructions, I’ve changed the thread to include eps 11 and 12.
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The thread is open. I haven’t forgotten this time. 🙂
Let’s enjoy the show.
81 Comments On “Our Blooming Youth: Eps 9 to 12 Open Thread”
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Kalimera @Packmule3,
Thank you for opening this thread.
I am not in the mood to comment in detail these days. I might comment or I won’t.
Just finished episode 9 and the story is moving along a bit faster. As we suspected the Song family was a rebellion that was squashed prior to the start of the story. Interestingly it was the right minister who was in charge of doing it. Did he or did he just turn an enemy of my enemy into a friend? Seems like the Song leader was left to die tied to a stake with multiple arrows in him. Preview for next episode suggests he didn’t die.
Preview also suggests that Seja knows someone is from that traitorous country/province Byeokcheon. Likely whoever is the spy in the palace. I have my money on either the head eunuch or his guard whom he saved from the streets.
So far a lot of the investigation and solutions have been very cerebral and a lot of sitting around talking about stuff and not much action. However I imagine real life detectives will likely tell us that’s reality. Cool action chasing bad guys is probably a rarity and most of it is boring research or sitting around on stakeouts.
I think it was nice that the story led us to think the it was the Sargent’s dad who was betraying the king and it was our suspicious Seja who took FL’s teachings to heart and decided to trust. Character growth instead of impetuous anger and action like the earlier CP who we saw kick out a maid for having dirty stockings and badmouthing him behind his back.
This inevitable love triangle may be difficult to resolve but I am hoping the writer decides to forgo any usual tropes and find a creative way to solve it that doesn’t break this cute bromance. So glad both men at this point trust each other and their friendship. I hope it stays for the whole show.
The slow burn romance is definitely slow and subtle but telling that FL immediately thinks of being by his side when she hears about the shaman curse. She does seem more worried about him than the fiancé she was mooning over earlier. I don’t think she’s aware of the change.
Also nice to see that beneath the arrogant CP is a growth mind set person who is initially offended about the badmouthing of the prince by the scooby doo team but he does listen and seem to realize they have a point. In some ways it reminds me of PHS’s hidden king in Hwarang who had to learn what it was like in the real world to be a better king.
I like the princess more and more especially her positive attitude toward the punishment of such meager food to repent to the heavens or really just serve penance for yelling at the Jo family. She’s definitely made of stronger stuff than the little prince who is way too pampered. She may be a good fit for the Sargent after all. I still can’t tell if she’s the Seja’s full blood sister or 1/2. The queen seems too young to be her real mom.
Seems like there could be a showdown eventually of the ninja warriors of that rebel state and the king’s men (hopefully led by the CP and Sargent). Looking forward to that action.
Anyone else watching still? Well I guess I’ll just rabble on about it for anyone who might still be interested.
@GoodTwin. I think your hunch from earlier was right. The little prince is likely not the king’s son and I have my money that he’s the Song rebel leader’s son with the queen. She conveniently shows up right after her uncle squashes the Song rebellion and becomes the king’s wife 10 years ago. She seems to have some feelings for Song and hints he might not be the big baddie after all. Maybe it’s the uncle using Song to take down the King and Yin family. If Song really is dead and the right minister is using his cause and his rebel people to overthrow the king that would explain the Queen’s apparent hidden hatred for her “uncle”.
I wonder if there is any deeper reason for the right minister to align with these Byeonkcheon folks aside from the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Could he or the Jo’s be the true rulers/heirs of that land?
There were some really nice scenes between the leads. I liked how the CP told FL how much he missed her and how much more lonely the eastern palace was without her only in his mind. Verbally he told her he could never tell her what he thought. He is trying to act honorably to his friend. He also tells her he wants to tell the Sargent about her and have her go to him. So CP doesn’t want their secret to affect their new bromance.
Then she reveals that she would rather stay by his side as a eunuch since it gives her the freedom to do all that she wants. It was really warming to see that each of the leads has empowered the other to do the thing they really want to do/be. She gave him the advise/reason/courage to trust again and he gave her the self empowerment to do what she wants even as a Joseon maiden by giving her a cover and listening to her in public.
Now that we know she doesn’t really love the Sargent but decided to like him since it was the best way to have a marriage she never wanted, I think people will find their blooming love less unsavory (some complain it’s like cheating). Also the CP is likely to keep his promise that if she doesn’t want to marry she can be the head eunach. After all he didn’t specify whom she was to marry so presumably if he did become king and she wanted to marry him then she doesn’t have to be a eunach. Hopefully they would still find a way to galavant across the country solving crimes and not stifled by politics/palace intrigue.
Still no idea what the white hair or peonies have to do with the song rebellion and everything so more mysteries still left to solve.
I hope others are enjoying this show too!
Kalimera @Koalatown,
I am watching the show, but due to what happened in our part of the world, I am not in the mood to analyze in general.
Yes, the Grand Prince is not really the King’s son. Also, the Right Chief Minister lied about what really happened 10 years ago with the bandits. Most likely the Jo family was abusing the whole town. Noone who is stabbed in the belly can walk for 40kms… as the governor claimed.
The only thing I wanted to say is that the red fish was present in that lake the Queen was attending. So, the red fish the monk had is for her?
@Cleopatra. Thank you for commenting. May I ask what part of the world are you from?
I think the queen was looking at carp in the lake but the monk’s fish was unusual according to GR. Since fish were on the jade bracelet that the adopted brother gave her I do think it may play a role in the future.
@Cleopatra kdramas are a great escape when the world seems too much. Sending virtual hugs! I’m still watching and am enjoying your commentary @Koalatown and @ Cleopatra so I hope you keep commenting. I agree with you. I think the Queen may have been married to or lovers with Song. As soon as she said she arrived 10 years ago – it seems to tie her to timing when the rebellion was quelled.
I may need to let some episodes stack up before I continue watching – I find the slow pace of exposition frustrating.
I look forward to the bride selection for CP – there was a reference to the palace where his betrothed will live – that should add some romantic tension for the leads.
I’m glad others here are still watching this drama. I’m finding it really slow at this point, though it promises more change and action–case in point, the FL’s maid has been discovered and will be followed, which means that her connection with the FL will likely be discovered, as well. The coroner (her teacher) has also been ordered by his family to go to another town and serve in a government position. So our little quartet soon may disperse.
Also–since the FL’s conversation with the CP about being a eunuch was overheard by his warrior guardian, it’s likely that her cover might soon be blown as well. I wasn’t sure how much of the conversation he overheard, whether just the last part about her wanting to become the head eunuch for the CP or from the beginning, where she talked about preferring to live as a man rather than a woman. (He had gone to ease drop outside the secret library after seeing both their hats tossed on the floor, so I wondered if maybe he was suspecting that the CP and the eunuch were having an affair–?).
One problem I have with historicals is when they get bogged down in palace politics and backstage maneuverings. What I had really liked about this one at the beginning was seeing how a woman on the run could keep her wits about her and survive. I also liked watching her do investigative work. So much of the last episode was about the Song family, though, showing us the rebellion, with graphic fighting and bloodshed (using scythes to cut people down–ugh!).
I’m very curious about the queen’s wife. I assume the Grand Prince is not the king’s son. But she also is hoping for her uncle to die, which makes me wonder if she is even his real niece since he and his relative talked about how she was so much better looking than the rest of the family. Is she the veiled woman who came to the shaman bureau? It sure seemed that way since she was in the next frame after that discussion.
Right now I’m wishing this was a shorter drama so they could keep it focused on the FL and the investigation of her family’s murder, while building the love story between her and the CP. At 20 episodes, they are going to have more time to spend on the rebellion and peonies and grey hair and viper poison, etc., and I’m not sure I’m going to really care by the time they explain everything–since they keep adding more things to explain.
Kalimera @koalatown,
I am Greek, the regular B.o.D’ers already know of this. 🙂
I am usually active commenting on the shows that I like, but these days I just don’t have the mood to do so.
@GoodTwin, we are mourning collectively so it is not easy to do so. It is still too soon for that. Thank you for the virtual hugs! 🥰
Regarding the show, my guess is that the Jo family used the Song as an scapegoat in order to earn merits from the King. His niece was definitely in love with him.
I don’t think they were actually married, because the data would be available and the now Queen wouldn’t be a good match for the King. If they manipulated them, then they did wrong to Joseon by giving a widow to the King – according to their customs.
Regarding the fish, the one we saw from the monk had stripes that’s why it reminded me the red ones in the lake. They were bigger of course.
@BethB the veiled woman was a Court Lady because of her Hanbok. The Queen cannot go out in the night. Historically she cannot go out of the palace at all.
@Cleopatra. Thank you for sharing and I am sorry to hear about the train crash in Greece. Hugs.
@Cleopatra thanks for the clarification about the veiled woman at the shaman bureau. I was confused and thought that the scene being described was a flashback, so it could have been a time before the queen was the queen. But that would have been at least ten years prior—so the maiden describing the encounter would have had to be fairly young back then—perhaps too young to know what was going on. The intentional red herring is that the maiden described the veiled woman and then the next scene was an immediate shot of the queen. I suppose that could also mean the veiled lady was sent by the queen…
@Beth,
Most likely the Queen has one Court Lady who is loyal to her and only.
That is the case so far in all all the other Sageuks.
The Shaman apprentice who went to Sergeant is not the Maiden. It is a girl who happened to see the Veiled Woman paying a visit to the Head Shaman. If I remember correctly she said she was visiting her for a year? I need to recheck that scene.
@Koalatown Thank you as well…🙂
Episode 11
All I want to say at the moment is that the KING is a complete coward!
He is not worthy of the throne and after watching this episode, I kinda think he even killed his firstborn son!
P.S. @Packmule3, I know you are not online, but if you see this, can you make this thread for Episodes 9 up to 12? Thank you in advance!
Episode 11. Man it sucks to be the CP. You lead a mostly shelter life where your job is to greet the king and queen daily and attend “school”. Then you finally get out and about to try to figure out this whole curse mystery to discover that it’s all related to a supposed rebellion that sounds sketchy.
You see first hand how the commoners of your country are suffering from starvation and lack of compassion and corruption in the courts. You try to make a little difference in one life at least.
You try to find more about the so called rebellion by asking people from that area only to end up causing them all to lose their jobs. You notice they have also been prejudiced against for a decade. You then beg your father to reconsider and he tells you to keep out of politics.
You then confess that all along all you wanted was to make your dead brother proud of you and follow what your dad said and distrust everyone. This nearly killed your spirit and makes you ashamed of who you are. What’s the point of merely being alive and being potentially cursed by your subjects. You desire to be a better ruler but are now imprisoned by your father in your room. Talk about the epitome of being grounded.
I love how the Scooby-Doo team helped that orphan and the Song rebels saw each of their compassion and heart. Hopefully when it is revealed who they are, the rebels realize they aren’t the enemy and maybe can be an ally to take down the corrupt Jo family.
Still wondering if the queen is really a Jo who sympathizes and wants to help the rebels or if she’s is a fake Jo.
Episode 12
Our Seja is very smart and after a month he finds a way out of his confindement in the Eastern Palace.
I was also glad that Scholar Jo managed to “humiliate” the so called Elders…LOL
Tae-Gang might have an evil twin or he is indeed a baddie himself. I tend to believe the first hypothesis, since he was with Seja when the ninja was attacking our Maiden.
We shall see what it will happen in the next episodes. Now, we get to see the good stuff. The conspiracy is huge as it seems. The Jo family blamed the poor in Byeokcheon for their wrongdoings and in order to cover it up they made them bandits for the eyes of the King and the whole country of Joseon.
The good thing is that the Tavern couple saw that Scholar Park is a good man and saved that kiddo. Also, they know along with the Monk that the peonies are not that innocent. I do hope in the later episodes, they will help Seja with this Quest to find the truth and do justice to them all.
Also, the Right Minister is despicable. He threatened the Queen herself and he is still alive? Tsk Tsk Tsk…Karma is bitch they say.
@Cleopatra. Agree with TG having an “evil” twin. So far TG hasn’t shown himself to be the brightest bulb out there. Even when he was sent to tail that gambler guy who supposedly inherited a fortune from his poor uncle he was wearing his uniform which stood out like a sore thumb instead of the slightly less obvious black garb of his presumed twin who didn’t recognize the teacher/coroner on the streets.
I still am unsure whether that whole ninja gang is “bad”. They do seem to want to take down the system which has been shown to be corrupt. Wouldn’t it be a cool twist if it turns out the king and Song leader have been working together this whole time to take down the Jo’s? Too far fetched?
At least it seems like the king may have been testing the CP to see if he could solve how to get out of confinement by himself and circumvent the right minister’s schemes. Cool the Seja also seemed to have gained an ally in that Jo scholar. Is the whole elder thing like Attorney Woo judge where how close your bloodline is to the original ancestor means you’re higher up the rank even if you’re younger in age?
Clever for the Seja to use his unique memory talent skill to get out and important that in order to do so he has to trust a Jo he never met based only on what he had read from the guy’s entrance exam and what he knew he had done since then. What growth from our original cranky mistrustful prince. Also notable that he no longer hallucinates the ghost letter or has any issues with his arm during the archery event. Seems like it was all a physical manifestation of the decay of trust in his soul.
Clearly the Seja has feeling for MinJae and I guess she may also have something that she is unaware of. Hence her asking herself about whether the bracelet is for her. She also really couldn’t keep her eyes off him during the whole archery/book memorization thing even though her fiancé was right there.
My guess for solving this terrible love triangle since her fiancé seems like pretty good guy is for him to realize he just isn’t in her heart and burn the engagement letter and free her to be with the prince. Although how the writer will also let her keep her freedom and adventure is still beyond me.
Overall though I am thoroughly enjoying this show and can’t wait to find out next week if it’s a twin , he just is bad, a false memory or something else.
Episode 12
I was going to agree with the evil twin theory (one brother is the “man in black” who knows how to conceal himself, the other wears his uniform all the time, even when tailing someone). But looking back over the last scene in this episode, the CP’s guard has the same sullen look when he aims his sword at Eunuch Go/Minjae as the ninja did when he aimed his arrow at her. (Or has she conflated the two somehow in her mind? Or–is this because this actor is still pretty green and has a limited number of sneers/looks?)
However, when Myung-Jin runs into the man in black on the street in the morning, wouldn’t the CP’s guard have been at the palace guarding the CP? He had to make up an excuse of GI problems later to leave the line of guards, just to slip away and talk to Eunuch Go/Minjae. It didn’t seem like he would have been free to be out roaming around the streets. I’ll be curious as to how the show explains all this in the end!
I really enjoyed these last two episodes and don’t mind the slow-burn romance. In fact, I am sort of hoping that the romance will remain on the back burner because, as the CP’s potential life partner, Minjae would lose a lot of her freedom to rove about and solve mysteries, or to even enjoy red bean soup at the local cafe with her friends.
Done, @Cleopatra.
Thank you @Packmule3!
Episode 13…
Things are getting complicated.
So, we have the King giving secret orders to his two most trustee Ministers. Is that a foreshadowing that the King might die?
We also have that awful Jo Right Minister giving orders to kill the Sergeant and his lackey clearly knows that the Crown Prince was there too and he dared shot him with an arrow. I do hope that he will be executed for all the pain he caused so far.
The Crown Princess is coming. I do hope the poor girl will be alive and won’t be killed because of the Jo Family.
Regarding the factors the Ministers said to the King the right girl has to have in order to become The Consort, the Maiden clearly lacks in the fact that her family is killed. Her parents are not alive.
How the Maiden and the Crown Prince are going to end up together?
This is something I would like to see.
I am glad the Maiden realized her feelings for Seja. It was about time…
I may throw something at the screen if the the two leads say “I’ll stay by your side” to each other again. It seems like they say it at least once every episode. “I’ll stay by your side.” “No I’ll stay by yoooour side”. “No I’ll stay by your side even more.” “You couldn’t possibly stay by my side more than I’ll stay by your side” …..😭
Unless fiancée is being purposefully obtuse he should figure out now that the “little handsome lord” is a woman not a man, also she is his missing bethrothed and also in love with CP. With all the youth in on the secret, hopefully they’ll start working together in earnest on uncovering the plot.
I’m in on the evil twin theory for the CP’s guard. Wasn’t he an orphan rescued by the CP? I think we will find out he has ties to the province as well.
What happened to the bounty hunters?
Good Evening, I binge watched Thursday and Friday to get caught up and love the show. @Good Twin, you are too funny about them stating to by your side over and over. And yes, if the sargent didn’t have some questions, then……
I love the 3rd Male lead(?) the maid’s teacher. He is so funny and when he tried to get away/hide from the “woodpecker”, that scene as many of his scenes made me chukle. Question: How did the woodpecker end up with Min Jae’s braclet? I think the bracelet maybe has a way to “leak” poison ia a theory i have.
Why do you think the tavern owner’s wife dropped the basket/tray when the children shared their names? Clearly she knows them or their parents.
See you all tomorrow eve!
@Kelley I think when Min JaeYi first ran away in episode 1 and the soldiers were searching her house one of them found it on the ground and picked it up. Presumably if it is poisoned then that could also explain why Sim Young was wandering around the house before his death (likely searching for the evidence). I assume the soldier saw that it was jade and sold it for cash to that pawn shop where the woodpecker bought it. Maybe she’ll be a candidate for the crown princess but mysterious get poisoned by the bracelet leading to the scooby doo team figuring it out. Hopeful she doesn’t die before MinJaeYi get jealous and confesses her feelings.
The writer and director really hid the fact that Min JaeYi had feeling for the Seja quite well. Seems like from her internal dialogue at some point she felt more than just joy at being free to be herself with him. All that shadow canoodling was her inner heart’s desires. How cute!
I am still unclear if the Sargent really doesn’t have a clue. Surely even if he thought she was only a eunach he has picked up on their strong affections for each other which should be odd. Did he really carry her out of water and not sense she was a woman?
I am doubling down on the twin theory and whoever is the head person in the palace obviously saw the Seja rescue TG and knew there was an identical twin and is using that fact to their advantage. Clearly TG is unaware. I know there was a lot of superstition about twins in the past so maybe they abandoned the 2nd one and that is how TG ended up being a street urchin.
So at least now we know that the Song rebels have had a plan for some time to take down the Jo’s. Hence the shaman official who went to the right minister with the plan for the bloody water. Even if the rebels blamed the king for giving the order that resulted in the slaughter of innocent people they should still want revenge on the Jo’s.
I loved the chase in the field and all the fighting. For once the characters didn’t get injured because they ran in front of the target (usually the loved on) to take the bullet/arrow or whatever not quite deadly projectile objects. This time they legitimately got injured fighting. I loved how Min JaeYi was able to hold her own and the two MLs ended up back to back. Of course both people had to survive the not cliff of doom fall. 🤣.
Still so much mystery to solve and only 7 episodes to pull it all together. Can’t wait for episode 14 although possibly CP noble idiocy of pushing JaeYi away to save her. Surely she won’t have any of that with her personality.
As for the kids. I wonder if it could be their own kids. They have been in hiding for 10 years (those kids are 15 and 11) and it seems like they were sending food to the fish man (perhaps thinking it was to help feed/hide their kids which is the only reason they are helping). I thought it was too strong a reaction just for a neighbor’s kid or even long lost distant relatives who are from that same village.
Episode 14
The Maiden’s bracelet was filled with poison. That’s why she didn’t die with her family, she was to die by it, but because she lost it during her escape, the poison didn’t affected her that much.
Still that was the reason she cannot remember what happened in her home that die. It is something that makes you disoriented.
The Right Minister Jo found out that the Maiden is Eunuch Go.
At the same time, we get to see the Han Maiden. The King wants to marry Seja in a speedy way.
And the latest one, the Queen has the spy inside the Easter Palace and as it seems the Warrior is loyal to her as well. So, we have a web of people who work for Seja but their loyalty lies with the Queen. I do hope they will move smoothly before the Right Minister Jo tries to dethrone Seja or before the Maiden is in trouble.
What will they do if the secret is out? We have 6 episodes and the suspence is escalating. Hopefully those people they helped, will help them as well.
P.S. Seja as pabo is a pabo indeed…LOL
Correction(s): That day*
*The King wants Seja to be married in a speedy way.
@Koalatown, thank you very much for the backstory. I agree with your thinking.
I just finished 14 and thought wow are they really going to be able to wrap this up in six more episodes? We will have to see.
Sargent is finally getting a clue, huh? But it seems that both he and Seja are made for each other as friends – both a little on the slow side or at least as it relates to Min Jae (always have been!)
Well until next week!
@Cleopatra, thank you for the recap. It is a tangled web. I first thought the Guardian Soldier had a twin, but he kept saying it wasn’t him, and said it so convincingly……
Episode 14. So the queen is behind everything along with her double agent lady’s maid Kwon who reports what they want to the right minister to manipulate him to do what they want? She is really ruthless since she knows how vile her uncle is and what he is capable of but maybe the ends justifies the means. They sent that poor Oh min shik to the uncle to do the celebratory blood knowing it might put his life in danger. He and his whole family is murdered and all they say is make sure they’re buried where there is a lot of sun. I guess they are all pawns for the greater good… which is what? Revenge for the murder of the innocent people of that B village whose name I can’t remember? Revenge for the king for giving the order and the the Jo’s for the actual slaughter.
Is the end game to get her presumably Song son on the throne so she can be queen reagent? Clearly she doesn’t want him under her uncle and likely has a plan for her uncle’s death either at the hand of king for all his scheming and evil acts or herself/her minions.
Sill not sure how this all ties into the poison bracelet that killed Min JaeYi’s family and the white hair and memory altering petal incenses.
As for the OTP. Boy the writer sure enjoyed slow playing the reveal that for a while now JaeYi’s been crazy for the Seja. She and the director gave such subtle hints that most of us thought she was unaware. Turns out she was totally aware and egging him on sometimes like with the shadow canoodling. I loved how she even tells him she has been sending love sparks at this secret lover to no avail because he’s so dense. 🤣
Now the angst is turned up because she has resigned herself to the fact that they can’t be together in the future (what with a kingdom to rule and a crown princess to marry) so she is determined to stay by his side as long as possible. She can’t tell the Sergeant now because there is no way she could remain in the palace no matter how understanding he may end up being about her innocence and such. However the preview suggest the right minister may force their hands in the next few episodes.
Maybe we’ll get the hinted heartbreaking scene of Seja begging his dad to dethrone him for his sins. The sins of hiding a maiden female murder suspect as a eunuch? Is that a sin punishable by death for JaeYi? I thought men and women were very separated in Joseon time. Is it like puritanical America where if you are caught with your britches down you had a shotgun marriage?
How to resolve that and the new princess competition? I think in the preview the girl is seen pocketing a jade ring. Maybe she also has a secret lover and would rather not marry the CP.
Another long 6 days to wait to see what happens.
@Kelley 🤣🤣. It’s amazing how dense both the CP and the Sergeant are. They are a match made in heaven and I wonder which of them will be the first to clue the other in.
I mean it takes the right minister a few clues and the rough sketch of the murder suspect to realize Eunach Go is JaeYi. How long has the Sergeant stared at JaeYi’s portrait and puzzled over how close the CP and the eunach are? He is only now wondering about it and still convinced the eunach is a guy even after carrying her out of the water.
As for the CP he was quick to realize his affections and expressed them in a subtle way of always protecting her and wanting her to stay with him yet can’t seem to realize when she says it back it’s for the exact same thing!
My guess is at some point after the big reveal of her identify and maybe his near dethronement they will be forced apart only to have a grand romantic reunion where they find each other by going or staying in the East. With the many loose threads to tie up it may be in the last 30 seconds of the show 🤣.
Hey @Kelley,
I continue to believe that there is a twin. Mostly because at times, the Guardian Warrior was with Seja inside the Palace.
So, he might be from that City as well and he was left on the streets. Maybe the Queen recognized him because of the other one.
The thing is as @Koala says, the Queen is not that innocent.
If there is a scheme to take down the Jo Family then, they should be doing it and not having a lot of people getting killed along the way.
All I can say is that I am curious to see how they will end it…
@GoodTwin – Perhaps it should be a drinking game–to take a shot every time one of them utters, “I will stay by your side!” from now on. Will we be intoxicated by the end of the episode?
In the earlier episodes the queen seemed to be easily intimidated and anxious–but now it turns out that she has been orchestrating a spy ring inside the palace and making plans to kill her uncle and put her son on the throne. Shouldn’t we have had some earlier clues that she was evil (or is she evil? I actually don’t know–she may be doing all this as revenge for the slaughter of the people in Byeokcheon and/or her lover(?) Song).
We have six episodes left and they sure are taking their sweet time to explain all the mysteries, with no hint at clearing anything up yet. These include:
• Does the guardian warrior really have an evil twin?
• Is the Grand Prince actually the king’s son? And is the queen actually in the Jo family?
• Who among the CP’s entourage is actually loyal to him and not to the queen?
• Who poisoned Tae Yi’s family and how? (Was it the same person/group who shot the CP with the poisoned arrow?)
• Who sent the ghost letter and how?
• What magic or chemical turned the shaman and the adopted brother’s hair white?
• What do peonies have to do with any of this–and the small fish that feeds on blood?
• How does this all connect to Byeokcheon?
• What actually happened in Byeokcheon?
–and on and on.
I hope they won’t rush all the explanations until the last episode or so, leaving little time for the OTP to be fully established. If a woman can’t become the Crown Princess without a mother and father, and this rule is always adhered to–either Tae Yi would become a concubine (doubtful) or the CP would leave the palace and go off with her, perhaps to return at a later time after the Grand Prince made a mess of things? I really don’t see how they are going to get them together as prince and princess otherwise.
Show, please surprise me–in a good way!
@bethB. Wow laying out all the remaining mysteries does make you really wonder how they’ll wrap it up in 6 more episodes. You’ve already listed 9 so they would have to at least solve 1 -2 per episode.
Don’t forget the biggest mystery of how to get the OPT together and solve the fact that she’s an orphan noblewoman (even if she clears her name) reportedly unfit to be crown princess unless they change the requirements. How do both of them give up the freedoms they’ve been enjoying away from the palace and being able to be their true self if they end up being confined to the palace? If they do somehow get away together that country is doomed without a reasonable ruler unless maybe that scholar Jo.
One of the biggest mysteries that I should’ve noted above, but which probably deserves its own separate post, is why the adopted brother (Shim Young) poisoned his adoptive family (or let them be poisoned).
Shim Young was the boy that Jae-Yi rescued from being sold into slavery (in Episode 4—the same day the CP and Sergeant visited her father). Her family then took him in and raised him. So why would he turn his back on them as an adult? The most far-fetched explanation I can come up with for this (since crazy explanations may actually work from here on, I’ll list it) is that his parents were killed in Byeokcheon and he was put there as a long con. But what young kid could pull that off? More likely was that, when he was an adult teaching at Gaeseong Temple, he came to know Monk Moojin [whom Ga-Ram remembered from when he gave him food(?) at their doorstep]. And the monk either won him over or drugged him/forced him somehow. I’m not sure that the monk has any connection to that temple, but I couldn’t think of any other place they might have met. (And the only reason I connect the monk to the shaman activities is his white hair—but that could be a red herring. I can’t think of any other connection between him and the head shaman… unless there is something I’ve missed or forgotten).
The only reason I thought that there might be a Byeokcheon connection is that that childhood scene looked like it was 10 or so years in the past, which would be around the time of the massacre there.
The other mystery is the warrior guardian—who the CP rescued from being a thug in the market. Could it be more than a coincidence that both men were rescued as boys from lives of depravity by the CP or people who were part of his inner circle? Could they have been from the same hometown? This is all crazy conjecture on my part, but the show is hardly throwing us any clues at this point that would connect everything. While I enjoyed watching the CP get out among the people and enjoy another bowl of red bean soup and a sing-along in Ep 14, I wish that some of that time could have been spent on starting to clarify and connect all the mysterious elements.
@bethb. I suspect that the CP going out and about and getting to know common folks and what they are experiencing is for more than his own education and growth but also to let some of the rebel people (tavern folks) know his true nature is different from the corrupt Jo’s or the king. Seems like the Byeoncheon people were abused by the corrupt Jo’s and then when they asked for help from the right minister they got framed as rebels and then massacred. So they want to take down the king and the Jo’s.
Unfortunately taking down the Yi’s would include the CP unless he figures out why they rebelled and want to align with them and they don’t want to destroy him anymore because they know his true nature- compassionate, willing to learn and truly wants better for his people.
It’s Sunday in US so only more day for another episode. Will I be able to wait until Tuesday evening so I can watch both? What will you do @Koalatown and @Cleopatra and @BethB?
And while we are waiting is anyone watching Divorce Attorney Shin on Netflix? It is sooo good, but my kdrama viewing might be a little basic for your tastes.
@kelley I do hear that pairs of episodes are better watched together but I am too impatient to do that. I even read a terrible online English translation of the original book series just to make sure I was ok with the ending. Sadly later I found out that due to all the Chinese backlash they adapted it and changed it so much that I have no idea what the end will be. So here I am with no way to spoil myself and anxious to find out how things turn out. I hope the writer can pull it all off in 6 episodes. I think looking back she built up a lot of stuff in what seemed like filler and fluff but was important. Well at least I hope so if it all ends well.
I’m glad I’m not the only one looking forward to tomorrow!
Kalimera Ladies,
@Kelley, because of my time zone, I will watch Episode 15 tonight.
I am watching DAS on Netflix, but I have stayed a bit behind.
@Koalatown, I am not in to back to back episodes, unless they are out the same time, like Island or Decoy / Bait.
@Packmule3, Can you open us a thread for Episodes 15-20 ?
@Kelley I go about historicals in a different way than I watch other dramas, especially for the last four episodes. Generally I don’t like waiting a week between cliffhangers, which the 13-14th (in a 16-episode drama) or the 17th-18th (in a 20-episode drama) tend to provide. So I’ve been able to hold off and watch the last four usually in the same week.
With OBY, I’ve told myself to wait for both episodes to be out each week, but then find myself Monday night around 9pm sneaking a peek at it, and then finishing the thing, kicking myself that I have to wait until the next day for whatever happened to be explained or resolved. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
So I’ll probably watch the latest episode some time today! (Being able to discuss it on these posts is also an incentive to watch it on the day of its issue!)
Episode 15.
Many things are coming up together, like the poison was in the fish bracelet Shim Young gave to the Maiden. He was the one who turned the fish’s head in order the arsenic to enter the cauldron with their food.
So, he was about to assassinated them all, but the Maiden didn’t eat that day with them. We don’t know WHOse orders he was following and why his hair became white.
Our Lovely Kim Myung-Jin realized who is who and knows the truth about their identities.
The thing is that the Right Minister Jo is going to bring harm to the Maiden.
Lastly, the thing we didn’t expect… is WHO was the person who gave that Peach to the previous Crown Prince and died.
The person who gave that peach was used of course by the one who gave him the peach in the first place and it is convenient since our Seja got his curse that night, don’t you think?
There is a conspiracy that started three years ago and the Queen seems not to know about the peach incident herself or maybe not? That all is a facade?
So, is really Jo the culprit? Was the one who gave that peach in order the first born son of the King to die? If that is the case, then he is also the one who made the rumour about the second born son aka Seja is the killer of his Hyungnim! AND of course the one who made the Curse.
If Jo is not the culprit, then who is it? The so called Bandits? How did they have access into palace? So, we need to focus to what the Queen does… Is the Queen lying behind her teeth and her own son made her lose face?
I think we will find out. I do hope the King really heard what the GP said…
Dear @Packmule3,
Kalimera. I see that you are busy. I do hope you are okay!
Can you make this thread up until Episode 20? It is easier for us and you this way!
So glad a couple of mysteries were solved in episode 15. At least they know know who poisoned the family and how but still not why. If they wanted to kill the whole family why go through all that complexity with the bracelet and hidden poison rather than straight up just have Sim Young poison them. Seems like framing JaeYi was important to them or at least him.
Similar parallel we know who poisoned the first CP but clearly the GP was a pawn for someone else whose motive is unknown. Seems like that kid should be 9 since his mom came to the palace 10 years ago. So 3 years ago he would have been 6. Was it the eastern palace lady’s maid who gave the peach to the kid to give to his brother? There is some reason the writer wants us to know she was there in the eastern palace before and more than how his brother handled personal feelings. Also I can’t tell if the queen’s surprise is that the kid gave the peach versus shock at how much guilt the kid has from such an innocuous act from so long ago. I am now worried about the princess hearing such a big secret. I don’t trust the queen and she may want to get rid of the witness.
I am rewatching with my kids who are on episode 10 and when the gang meet the monk to ask about the petals he seems to recognize the CP. I am wondering if that monk had been someone in the palace or court in the past. It wasn’t an instantaneous recognition like the Jo minister of justice recognized the CP when his vase broke. He also seemed keen to hide from the Jo and watch what happened during the kid thief incident. Why would a person from that village know anything about the prince? We know he wanders around the country and likely is the guy who lives in the temple at Geoseon that the bandits go to as well. Seems like they are stocking a lot of supplies in Geoseon for a large group of people. Lots of references to that. In the store in addition to wool the tavern guy was buying som sharp looking farming equipment. Arming an army?
Also going back to the secret letter sent to JaeYi’s dad. It seems like the sender was starting the reveal of everything. If it was for good intention like getting help for the CP then why kill the messenger? There are so many hidden spies in the palace it seems like you could just have snuck the letter in without all the viper poison arrow tying back to prince’s injury.
So great that MJ finally figured out who the rest of the team really are. He will protect that at all cost which seems to be a message of this show. Now if only the Sargent will also figure out about JaeYi so he can let her go in his heart.
So much angst for the OTP and the wedding to the crown princess fast approaching. Maybe that will finally push JaeYi to more directly confess rather than obliquely which is so lost on the CP. Somehow he just can’t seem to accept that his crush could like him back. Of course it would be more dramatic if he confesses first out loud given how repressed and uptight he has been. He has been stuffing his feeling down so hard it seems like when they finally surface they should explode.
@cleopatra. I think the bandits are behind it and are setting up the Jo’s to fall as what happened in Byeoncheon is revealed. I am doubling down on the twin and he is able to move in and out of palace disguised as the guard. I want to hope TG is innocent and unaware of a twin. When TG asks the prince why he’s still trying to figure out what happened in Byeoncheon 10 years also there seemed to be some slight reaction to statement that justice should be served if there had been a wrong. Maybe he was abandoned as the 2nd twin but someone was still watching over him on the streets like the monk or a gang of rebels so he knows he’s from there but doesn’t know he has a twin.
We also know some lady in disguise left the palace to visit the shaman at the temple so whoever that is must be able to get out as well.
My money is still on the queen being the ringleader along with the monk. He’s perhaps the general of the foot soldiers but she’s the mastermind pulling the strings. She was likely the wife/lover of the Song leader and resents the king for all he did. Like pm3 said a long time ago all this poisoning sounds like the work of a woman.
I think having an oppressed group of people who were framed and now suffer so much prejudice and injustice to rise up against the corrupt oppressive government makes a much better story than say the left minister scheming to take down his enemy the right minister by colluding with the prior bandits.
There seems to be a lot of foreshadowing of some kind of battle to ensure although only 4 more episodes to bring it about. It makes me worried about the pacing of the show.
Maybe the right minister reveals that eunach Go is a murderer and woman that the CP had hidden in his palace during the marriage ceremony. This forces the CP to confess that he sinned and beg for dethronement so he is ousted from the palace. He then goes to Geoseon to figure out what happened there since everything points to that place but normally he can’t leave for a whole day while still CP in the palace.
I am not sure if JaeYi will be jailed for murder as they still don’t quite have enough evidence to acquit her. The rest of the team along with the Sargent and TG goes to Geoseon. They discover the truth. The rebels learn who scholar Park really is and he promises them justice.
The Jo’s will of course claim the the rebels are amassing and risking the kingdom so they need to go and quell the uprising. The king is likely ineffective as usual or dead. So a battle between the Jo’s and the rebels with the CP ensues. If JaeYi is still in prison maybe the right minister tries to use her as hostage when things go south but of course she has already figured out a way to escape (no damsel in distress here).
As for the happily ever after ending… crossing fingers the writer has something clever up her sleeves and not some time jump opening ended reunion at the last 10 seconds.
Episode 16
(@Koalatown I will answer to you afterwards!)
So, in Episode 16 many things were revealed to us.
First of all, the Guardian Warrior has a Twin. I am glad that Kim Myung-Jin shows his skills to our little squad. He told them that he knows, yet they haven’t realized what he meant. I do hope he will save both GaRam and the Maiden in his own way.
As I was saying, the Guardian Warrior couldn’t be in two places at the same time. The Evil Twin has free entry inside the Palace because he obeys the Queen. He also takes orders from that Monk. That Monk also has the Red FISH that eats human blood.
So, now we know WHO took that amur viper to the Shaman and the dagger in the prison cell and who is responsible for shooting that arrow to Seja three years ago. The Evil Twin.
Second, the Queen is not who she says she is. We were wondering before, about the possibility that the Grand Prince couldn’t be the King’s son and we were right.
There are two cases for the Queen. She is a Song and she took the identity of a Jo Maiden OR she is a Jo herself who was married to the Song family and the Right Minister Jo didn’t know it. So, that makes him a fool as well. Right Minister Jo’s wrongs are so many…
Also, her Court Lady was the Veiled Woman who went to the Shaman.
In any case, the Joseon rules about WHAT kind of WOMAN is to be wed with the King / the Crown Prince has become null.
Since we have a married woman who was most likely pregnant entering the Palace and making a son as the third possible heir to the throne, who is most likely not the King’s legitimate son.
So, this fact, along with the fact that the Han Maiden is mourning her mother are two cases that HOPEFULLY *crossing fingers* will make the King to change / bypass those customs and our Seja and our Maiden could be able to marry in the very end.
Third, the Right Minister Jo assassinated the Firstborn son of the King aka the Elder Hyungnim / Seja with the peach he gave to the Grand Prince. He used the child to complete his evil deed and the 10 year old boy has regrets and is hallucinating.
Fourth, although the Princess who most likely is born from a Concubine swore she will protect her little brother the Grand Prince to the Debby Mamma / the Queen, she gave an order to assassinate her!!!
I also believe that the Monk is a SONG ELDER himself, that’s why he gave his permission to the Evil Twin to kill her!
The Queen is also a very good actress when she is mumbling if the girl is dressed heavily in a chilly night, when she is about to meet her death.
Fifth, the B’s city people were not in munity and were not bandits. They were people who were starving and the JO family killed them in cold blood. The JO’s who participated into this conspiracy killing innocent people should be annihilated.
The Queen should really know after 10 years inside the Palace, how politics and the Court works. She really knows that the King was fooled and he made a choice that was bad for the people in B city, but he was adviced so. If he was lied, she should try to understand him.
Yes, morally the King’s decision was wrong, but the choice he made was forced, because he was lied to.
So for me the Right Minister’s Jo and his immediate clan that was involved in the conspiracy, should be executed for the following reasons:
1. They lied to the King,
2. for killing innocent people and framing them as traitors,
3. for killing his firstborn son
4. for trying to kill his secondborn son as well.
5. For making the King a fool among his subjects.
6. For bringing a woman who wasn’t suitable for the King, regarding their customs, to become the Queen.
7. For committing Hubris.
I am glad that Seja will understand himself what actually happened and I do hope that the Queen will be deposed along with the Jo’s before they do harm to the Maiden and Haram.
P.S. Seja is kinda dimwit in the matters of the heart, but we love him for his loyalty and love not only towards the Maiden, but also for his friends and subjects… <3
@Koalatown,
There are some things you wrote that were answered by tonight’s episode.
I also think that there will be a battle for shorts but not in a big scale. I think that Seja will save the day literally.
For me the foreshadowing is also in the Royal Marriage’s customs that have to change because of what happened with the Song woman, in order our OTP to have an happy ending.
I will be waiting for you thoughts after the revelations we learned today. Next week’s episodes will be awesome!
@Cleopatra. Wow so many reveals some of which we had guessed correctly! Yes to the evil twin. I think the fact that when TG walked past the tavern owners and didn’t recognize them that he likely doesn’t have any clue about the whole “rebel” thing. I don’t think they are working together but instead the Queen and her minions let the twin know when TG is away at the Royal Bodyguard Unit or away from the palace so he can come in and do his nefarious things.
I agree that the monk is likely Song elder and from the previews it looks those peonies maybe mixed with the fish eggs act as a hypnotic perfume and you can make the victim think/do whatever you want. Likely that is what they did to poor Sim Young who wasn’t even from the B village but was apparently a worshiper who went to the monk’s temple.
I can’t believe how evil that right minister was to use his grandson to kill the first CP. That queen will definitely have his head on a platter. Interestingly I don’t think he knows that his “niece” was the wife of Song. I wonder who the parents of this niece are supposed to be. She lived in B village but isn’t the daughter of the guy who was the governor of B since they make no reference to a relationship between them. So could they have had a distant female niece living near B who wasn’t that close to the Justice Minister (like the Han princess candidate who seems to be from a branch of the family that lives far away). Maybe this Song wife was actually that real niece’s lady’s maid or something and to protect herself and her unborn child stole the real niece’s identity and probably life too. Seems like the queen clearly is more of a Song than a Jo. How exactly was she able to convince her “uncle” to get her quickly married to the king (before her pregnancy is known) is beyond me but clearly the character is a good actor and has fooled a lot of people for a long time. Maybe they used some of that fish egg/peony to fool the king too during the wedding night etc.
It is interesting that they timed the delivery of the ghost message to be right after the first CP died and the 2nd took over the Eastern palace. I still think that the “rebels” are behind the ghost message and used it to bring the whole Song story/B village massacre to light. Did they just see an opening and took it to start their revenge plot?
Poor princess… I was right to worry about her… but seems like she might survive from the preview. That queen sure has some kind of long term goal in mind and doesn’t seem to mind getting her hands dirty to do it. Presumably the fact that her kid is a Song can’t be revealed until after the king and CP are removed or else his life would be in danger and she’s definitely a mother bear. Was her end goal to get her son to the throne and she as reagent? That seems the only way to have enough power to protect him especially since he gave his brother the peach.
I definitely need to see that Right Minister go down hard for all the reasons @Cleopatra outlined.
I agree that the princess selection has to change since the leading Han candidate doesn’t have a mom already. That’s a short hop and skip away from no parents.
It is so adorable how clueless the Seja is and how jealous he is of himself. I think for someone so smart he should have probably figured it out by now but those scenes are just too funny that I don’t really want him to figure it out. Even when TG who isn’t the brightest bulb says…. isn’t it you… he didn’t get the connection. Should we place bets on when/how Seja finally figures it out? I think it would be funny if Seja goes to MJ alone to ask him to figure out the mystery of JaeYi’s secret lover and have MJ tease him endlessly about it.
thank you, ladies and especially @bethb. I waited and got two hours of watching which i love. i will try to make myself wait until (2?) weeks from tonight when the finale episode will air. I am getting all giggly at the thought of a four hour marathon. until then I will see you ladies. What is up next on deck? Enjoy and I will weigh in afterwards.
Thank you for all your interactions. I have closely watched all episodes as soon as they’re aired because my favorite Kdrama actor is PSH. 😀 I was a bit disappointed at the early episodes since I found the pace and writing too slow. But I still continued to watch because of the CP. I really found the pace building up in Episode 13 during their fighting scenes outside of the palace. I hope they had more action or suspenseful scenes outside the confines of the palace.
My fearless theories after Episode 16:
1) Princess will be rescued by Han Seong On and hopefully will end up together.
2) Han maiden cannot marry CP due to being orphaned and is in love with someone else
3)Jae Yi will be exposed and the CP will be in danger of getting dethroned. Meanwhile, the King will be killed and war will be invoked by his 2 loyal ministers against Right Minister.
4) Gaesong is preparing for war against the King and Cho. But focuses on Cho upon the King’s death.
5) Cho is killed by Queen. Queen is either imprisoned or she commits suicide after. Her son is exposed as being the son of Song leader.
6) Jae Yi’s name is cleared by CP and leaves the palace and lives in the house alone given by CP
7) CP is declared a king despite not having a wife. His romance with Jae Yi remains a hanging ending with both of them unable to be together until the end.
Hello! I caught up with your comments.
Really! How come Seja not know that Jae Yi loves him?! Agree @Koalatown, he is adorable. It was very funny to watch though. I am not sure how they can be together, but I am waiting for the story to unfold. Of course, the most ideal situation is for Jae Yi to clear her name. But how to overcome her marriage contract with the Sergeant? The two best friends would not want to hurt each other.
@Cleo, read your two reasons. I too are waiting for the story to explain – how would the Queen be a Song woman but still a Jo family person. How did a married woman enter the palace?
@Kelley I am watching Divorce attorney Shin. I really enjoy it. I wrote my thoughts in the What are you watching in April thread. It is very relatable. The friendship between the three guys are delightful to watch. I suspect the ramen lady must be a chef from some fancy restaurant. Judging that she loves wine and macarons.
@Viva. My guess is that the conversation the sergeant had with his cousin about how if JaeYi is alive and didn’t come to him all this time probably means she doesn’t want to will hit home. I think if JaeYi follows through and tells him herself and he reflects back on her desperate response to the Seja missing and injured in the mountains that he will burn the marriage contract and release her. What man wants to be with a woman so clearly in love with another? Also I wondered why in an early interview of the show when they asked the sergeant actor if there was a love triangle he said he doesn’t remember because they filmed for so long. I thought that was a coy response but maybe it was the truth. Can it count as a triangle if his character never even has a chance?
@Liza. I agree about Princess being rescued by Sergeant. Maybe they will be the end game subtly hinted at in the end. Although the brother in law of a king typically can’t hold a position in court which would be a waste of a talent, I did read that the king can make exceptions and give him a role. How fitting for a prince who was so paranoid and distrustful in the beginning if he makes it to the throne by exposing the corruption, defeating the Jo and changing the ways and then trusts his best friend enough to give him a position against customs.
Kalimera @Viva,
Good to know that you are up to date with us.
Well, as @koalatown suggested above and I agree with her, the Queen could have taken the identity of a distant Jo Maiden. So, she entered the selection without anyone knowing she was a Song herself.
If she is a distant Jo who married into the Song family and was also pregnant with his child, then she hid that fact altogether and somehow the Right Minister Jo made her enter the selection.
In both cases, the Queen is a fraud. She also broke Joseon’s laws for the Crown Princess and the Queen selection.
We shall see how they will untangle this one…
@koalatown,
The one who sent to our current Seja the ghost letter is the Queen along with her subordinates. We have her Head Court Lady involved in the conspiracy along with the Evil Twin. Most likely the Evil Twin did that.
As for the Queen trying to kill the Princess for me she is a cold murderer as her so called Uncle Right Minister Jo. The girl said she wanted to protect her little brother, yet she decided to assassinate the poor girl.
Most likely she will survive, due to the fact the Squad knows that the Guardian Warrior has an evil twin and Seja will also inform the Sergeant.
Since, the Joseon rules about the Selection has been tainted, they need to change their rules, after the Queen’s fiasco. The Han Maiden was brought into this by what her Uncle decided with the King. I do hope she will survive as well.
I think the revelations regarding the Queen and the Han Maiden will be made at once. So, we shall see how this will go…
Seja cannot believe he is the one, because he thinks he is the only one who fell in love with her. His obligation towards his friend the Sergeant is very strong for him even to think to betray him. That’s why our Seja is not voicing his true feelings.
Episode 17
Kang Tae knew that he had a Hyung, but he believed he was dead. Still, his brother almost killed Seja and now he wants to kill the Maiden for seeing them together.
The Evil Queen will say to the Sergeant that Eunuch Go is his betrothed in order to turn him against him.
Seja is one puzzle away for finding out that the Queen is the Song woman and that her son is not a Yi but a Song.
Tomorrow, we will find out more. We have three episodes to go and as it seems everything will be sorted in Episode 20.
P.S. It is really nice to read on MDL and see our points and theories being posted as a list, like I have done here many times before.
If you also gave us credit that you took it from B.o.D. it would be amazing, but you didn’t…
Episode 17. Wow I was on edge for this one and of course they left us on a cliff hanger. Confirmed the Queen plans to put her Song son on the throne and right the wrongs of what happened in Byeokcheon. Nice mystery solving for the white hair/mind controlling peonies laced with opium and hypnosis and the tea antidote (wonder if it’s those weird fish eggs).
Was not expecting the Song elder to kick the can though and wonder if anyone else is supporting them. Still a mystery the bit when the court lady Kwon asks if she should hand the princess over to the Chief minister. We haven’t seen any of him at all so if he is an evil villain he has stayed in the shadows.
The twin story was so much more compelling than expected… and sad. I loved to see how TG met the CP and how they were able to rescue him as a child. I imagine he is now all kinds of conflicted. He never expected his hyung to still be alive and of course doing all these evil deeds to help them return home. However he does know the CP’s heart so hopefully he won’t just step aside and let his brother and the queen’s folks continue their plot to kill the Yi’s.
Anyone notice that the note that said that Eunach Go is Min JaeYi was spoken in a male voice and I thought it might be the head eunach from the Eastern Palace. Definitely not the female voice of the eastern palace main lady’s maid whom we know is in on it too. Those 2 frequently exchange suspicious looks. Do they also believe that getting rid of the CP and putting that spineless little prince on the throne is a good idea? Shouldn’t they know what a great leader and compassionate person the CP is? He would make a much better ruler than that puppet little prince.
Still unclear how they plan to take down right minister Jo though especially since they planned to “tear him from limb to limb”. I need to see more of that planning and doing because that would be far more satisfying.
I laughed so hard at the Shield Investigating Team and their battle for leader. I assume it was a bit of a joke on the whole Marvel Shield. I do wish JaeYi had just told the CP about the little prince giving the peach to his elder brother but maybe that would result in too much rage at Right Minister Jo when they still need to solve the Ghost mystery stuff.
Sergeant had some pretty cool moves during his battle with the evil Twin and how clever of the princess to make sure they were secretly protected. At least he’s in on the twin mystery now but still clueless about JaeYi. Preview suggests maybe the queen will tell him thinking he will turn on the CP but I think that will be a red herring. Maybe they’ll use that to take down the Queen’s network but hopefully not before they eliminate the right minister.
As for the OTP, no progress there. Do they realize there are only 3 episodes left? It’s great all the mysteries are getting solved but why a romance tag if you’re going to leave us hanging until the last 3 episodes for anything to happen beside internal thoughts of deep love (which is nice…. but kinda frustrating).
Looking forward to the OST that PHS is supposed to be singing. Probably like the romance it will be shown in the last 5 minutes of the show ;P.
@Cleopatra – can you tell me where on MDL they posted our theories about OBY? I started scrolling through the comments but there were so many I don’t know where to start! Also in scrolling through it looked like more than half the comments about OBY there were negative (too slow/boring, no visible romance). So I wonder how well it’s doing in the ratings…
@BethB. I would say not great. Aside from the 1st episode it hasn’t been able to get past 4% nationwide in Korea. Granted it is on a cable channel and it’s got a rough M/T timeslot. However Military Prosecutor Doberman was also on TVN at a similar M/T timeslot and reached 10% but it was also on Netflix so maybe it pulled in a wider audience. Although I have seen Tweets saying that OBY is doing well on Vicki. So maybe it just doesn’t appeal to the Korean audience?
Overall I think it suffers from trying to mashup too many genres (romance (although barely), mystery, and youth growth story resulting in a lot of time spent trying to develop all these different aspects which may make it seem “slow”.
Personally I am impressed at how the writer is trying to tie all the pieces together and in a logical way. For example she used the barely there for 2 min. woodpecker lady to show how society frowned up MJ’s chosen profession, how little his family thought of him, used as “rival” to help GR see MJ is a better light as a pretty great catch, and then as the key element to solve the Min family poisoning. For such a throw away character she sure had a lot to do, however during each piece they seemed unnecessary or filler until the final puzzle piece fell into place.
It is likely a show that will be more fun to binge than to live watch. This way you don’t have to keep waiting weeks for the puzzle pieces to fall into place.
The romance isn’t some silly accidentally trip and my lips touch yours kind of thing. It is a deep soulful connection that can’t be spoken out loud because of all the rules/restrictions of the time. JaeYi loves the CP for his compassion/fortitude and noble spirit which makes him a great leader. She wants him to be that leader and knows that as an orphan she could never be with him under current rules so she just treasures all the moments together. He has a heavy sense of responsibility for his country, to do justice to his brother’s legacy and his best friend who is her fiance so he’s not going to voice his love either. That sure leaves the audience in as much angst as the characters.
@BethB are you holding off until after it concludes to binge the last 4 episodes?
I tried to hold off… but I am all caught up! I watch historicals two ways (well, three if you count just watching everything as it comes out, and nothing more). The first way, which I’ve already mentioned here, is to wait and watch the last four episodes during the show’s last week–usually not all on the same day, but the last couple of days of the show. The other way is to keep watching it as it comes out but then, during the final week of the show, as prep for the last two episodes, I’ll start re-watching bits and pieces of the entire show to try to remember and revisualize the story arc. That’s probably what I’m going to do with this one!
I’m glad that Episode 17 gave us a lot of missing pieces, but it felt a little rushed to get it out there. There seemed to be more telling than showing, with the leads theorizing aloud about the white hair, the purpose of the tea drinking during hypnosis, etc. I don’t suppose there was any other way to convey that info, except maybe for the sergeant to have smelled the tea, or to analyze the hair (which, of course, they probably couldn’t have done back then).
What did the queen pull out of her box BTW? Was it a knife or a tool she could use to inject the sergeant with some drug, etc.–or something else?
@bethb. I thought it was the same silver knife that lady Kwon stabbed herself with. Maybe it’ll turn out to be gift from Song? They did seem to make a point of showing it both times.
@bethb. Watched again and although they were both similar looking small silver knives the queen’s has some pink string decoration while lady Kwon’s did not. So same style of knife likely given to them by Song who was a blacksmith but not the same one. Apparently there is an old Korean saying, “there are no good knives in a blacksmith’s house”, meaning the blacksmith sells all the knives he makes and keeps only the old worn-out ones for his own family’s use. So fitting.
Kalimera ladies!
@BethB check the comment section for a comment posted 5 days ago as marked with spoilers. It is a hidden comment. It is not the first time they have posted something from B.o.D. at least this one has changed a bit the whole thing.
This past summer a person posted on MDL a theory I have posted on BoD for AOS the very next day from my post. @Packmule3 was also was plagiarized while writing on TKEM.
We do know that they read us. It would be wise if they gave credit to us.
As for people disliking OBY, this happens because it is a mystery drama first and then a romance. Since it is not a light one, it doesn’t fits their criteria.
As @koalatown posted above Seja and the Maiden have “a deep soul connection that can’t spoken out loud because of the rules / restrictions of the time” and I strongly agree with her conclusion.
Love is not about the touches and the kisses. It is also about the longing, the trust and the build of understanding that both of them have and this is something that noone can take away from them.
For me, the scene where the Maiden runs to and hugs Seja is more powerful than a kiss. Because in that specific scene, she said so much more with her action.
Same wise, Seja not only protects the Maiden, but also helps her to clear her name. At the same time, he bought her a house to live the life she wants to, according to what she told him.
Actions speak volumes in “Our Blooming Youth”. Hence their bond is unique and strong. I just hope that they will get their Happy Ending and the Golden Hairpin will be hers to wear in the end.
So far, the Queen is a treacherous soul who wants to kill the royal blood, in order to make the Grand Prince who is a Song a King. She is unethical for taking the id of a Maiden when she was pregnant and for manipulating her offsprings.
She was the one who told the Evil Twin to hit Seja with an arrow. She was the one who send the “Ghost Letter”. She was the one who almost killed the Princess and yes Sergeant is a better match for the Princess, did you see how they save each other when the Evil Twin attached them?
She may have her reasons to bring justice to the people of B-city, but when you are becoming a murderer yourself you are the same as the one who abused you.
Also, the Guardian Warrior should realize that his Twin really tried to kill Seja. If Kang is loyal to him, he needs to stick to his values.
It doesn’t matter if his brother was following the Queen’s orders. He killed and (tried to) hurt innocent people. The Evil Twin is a traitor for what he did to Seja and others and only Seja can and will judge him according to the Law.
I wonder if the Evil Twin will be the witness to prove Jae Yi’s innocence. I suspect Evil Twin will die at the end as he committed too many crimes. There is no going back for him. I think the Queen will die too. She has too much blood on her hands.
The gold fish that lives in the monk’s bottle – I wonder if we will see it again.
Episode 18
Finally, many things happened to this episode. Revelations and many revelations more…
First of all, the Maiden’s father sent a secret message to the Left Minister telling him about what he had discovered. I was pretty sure that the drawing Garam was remembering had a significance!
Seja’s Master found out that the Grand Prince is actually Song Hyun and not a Yi that’s why the Queen and the Monk assassinated them. The Maiden was to die as well. The Monk brainwashed Shim Young to think that they were lovers and then he also made him hang himself while writing that letter.
The fact that the Queen also assassinated the Crown Princess with the Maiden’s dagger means the Court Lady that belongs to the Easter Palace did it. She is her spy as well.
Another fact is that the Queen is keeping all those letters that expose her and yet she thinks that noone can touch her. I am waiting for her downfall with gusto!
Especially when the Queen gave that letter to the Sergeant, she was manipulating him and the fool didn’t realize it. She was too brazen for her own good.
The Maiden was right. The Queen was suspicious and she was the one who could have ordered to kill the Princess. I am glad Seja asked his sister about what happened that day and she told him!
I am sad that the Maiden was framed for the Crown Princess murder, although she was dead before she got there. As it seems from the teaser, the bandits will take her away from her prison.
The Right Minister Jo – another criminal himself – who assassinated the Elder Hyungnim / Seja will try to depose our Seja because of the Maiden.
I do hope that Kang Tae will realize that his brother took the dagger from Min Jae’s quarters, in order to make her the culprit in their treacherous plans.
@Koalatown as you will see the bandits will attack the Royal Guards that were taking somewhere the Maiden and they will take Min Jae away.
I do hope that the Queen will suffer by consuming those eggs. She deserves the worst because she is a maniac. Although, I am afraid that she can assassinate the King before that happens.
At the same time, the Right Minister Jo needs to go down ASAP for bringing that Song woman into the palace. He not only made some innocent people into traitors, but also brought a woman with her agenda to become the Queen and take her revenge.
What will happen to our lovely OTP?
They are so in love. Did you see those glances? I do hope they will get their happy ending. I don’t mind for a kiss. I just want them to have a happy ending. Whatever happy ending they deserve anyway.
I do hope that Kim Myung-Jin and Jang Ga-Ram will also end up together.
Also the Sergeant should find happiness with the Princess. He cannot expect from Min Jae to go back to him, when she clearly told him she won’t. He is stubborn to accept the truth.
As it seems, everything will be wrapped up in Episode 20.
Let us enjoy the drama…literally!
My fearless forecast after watching Episode 18:
1) Soldiers bring MJ to her imprisonment and possibly execution.
2) CP will be dethroned by King upon exposure by Cho.
3) CP will ask help from Tae Gang to go to Gaesang and get support from head of rebels, the married couple, to rescue MJ.
4) Letter of CP master to Right Minister was about uncovering the plot of the Queen and the Song son/prince.
5) Queen’s pen-like weapon will have the fish eggs which she plans to use on the King.
5) Right Ministers will declare war through the power given to them by the King against the Queen. Cho finds out and tries to stop them since his grandson will be dethroned. He is still unaware of the Queen’s hatred for him. Queen was a Baeksang maiden when Cho kidnapped her and introduced her as a Cho niece so she could be Queen and he could manipulate her not knowing she was pregnant.
7) Queen will have a confrontation with Cho about her Song son and kills Cho.
8) Queen will then be confronted by CP. She will also try to kill CP but Sergeant or Tae Gang will rescue CP.
9) Sergeant and Princess will team up to bring CP back to throne and hopefully end up together.
10) CP will get back his throne when he is crowned King and give MJ her house.
11) As King, he will still leave the palace in disguise and solve crimes with MJ and the Shield team.
QUESTION – WHAT WAS THE LETTER GIVEN TO THE CP’s MASTER BY THE TWIN AFTER KILLING THE MESSENGER? THE ORIGINAL LETTER OF THE CP WAS FOUND CRUMPLED AND GIVEN TO THE QUEEN BY THE CP COURT LADY. CP TOLD MJ THAT HE DECIDED NOT TO SEND THE LETTER TO HER FATHER.
@liza. Bold predictions. I can’t wait to see how many are right.
My theory on the letter is that the eastern lady found the crumbled letter and gave it to the queen. They then copied it to send to JY’s dad as an evidence plant. It would have looked odd to have a whole family mysteriously die by the hands of their adopted son for no reason (since they did not know JY was going to survive). If during the investigation of the deaths the letter is found then the CP and his whole ghost chasing him would be revealed and add leverage to their dethroning him. Sow distrust and superstition while also planting the seed of the ghost who they plan to reveal as Song by the shaman who had been hypnotized to do the killings and write the letters on the dead bodies.
I think JY’s dad saw something at the ancestor’s memorial near the temple that led him to discover that the queen is Song’s lover/wife and the little prince is a Song. Maybe a Jokbo or record of the Song family is there and a notation of a son for the dead Song rebel with a birthday that matches the prince? JY’s dad was looking into it and they discovered he was onto them so the B people had to kill them.
I wonder if JY is arrested and then going to prison and the queen sends her minions to capture her to use her as bait against the CP. In the preview he says something like “I will find you no matter what.” Or the right minister since he clearly is looking for her too.
I really need both the queen and right minister to get their comeuppance and if they take each other out during it, all the better.
How can all these people in the palace work for the queen? And how do they all believe the end justifies the means? Killing another poor innocent girl just to frame poor JY for the second time? I am guessing lady Kwon might be the mother of the twins. She seemed really upset when the evil one was minorly injured. More so than I would expect just from a village friend. Especially considering how calm she was about poor Oh Man Shik’s death. Poor TG will be really torn if that is the case.
I can’t believe how stubborn the Sergeant is about JY being his. It really does feel like he may not come around although I am hoping it’s a red herring and earlier when he said after he lost the polo match that there was no point in beating the CP that he feels like that now too. JY made it quite clear that no piece of paper was going to force her to stay with him and she did not want to. I think if he knew her better he would realize that deep down she has always been against status quo and only following law and duty. Maybe there will be a scene where he waits for her at that ancestral thing with the letter to confirm their marriage but she never shows and he finally burns it.
I agree the CP will be begging to be dethroned although that fit of rage with the broken vase/bowl suggests his dad won’t but somehow he has to escape the palace to rescue JY. Although the writer has been pretty consistent in not having a damsel in distress so maybe he finds some other clever way to help her. I would love to see the CP in a sword fighting scene again but I want JY to be part of it and not all tied up and not able to participate.
My guess is that either sergeant or TG or both will act as a double agent seeming to help the queen but ultimately betraying them because the deep long friendship the 3 of them have from childhood will rule the day in the end. I would like to see MJ and GR also have a role in the takedown and bring a bit of levity to a likely very tense and cliffhanger 19th episode.
These little snippets of the OTP are so heartwarming yet painful because you know it’s the calm before the storm. I assume the Seja finally figured it out after JY was longingly gazing at him for so long and he caught her staring. He did seem to want to spare her feelings when the other eunachs were doing their congratulatory dance on landing a cool crown princess.
I wonder why he didn’t give her the house key though. Maybe because it’s symbol of her life away from him and he’s just not ready to let go even if he is resigned to the wedding.
A week is so long to wait! I agree with @cleopatra that we won’t be satisfied until the end of episode 20.
I think the eggs can be reserved for:
1.the right state minister. He is the one the queen hates the most.
2. Although, the eggs may be reserved for the CP to make the prophecy she designed for him comes true. Step by step, she created all the reasons that to an outsider, are enough to make him mad. Being assassinated, best friend betrayed him, wife died. The last step would be using the eggs to turn him mad so the King has to dispose him.
If I remember it rightly, that drawer of CP has held 4 things to Jae Yi:
1.Some coins – just a fond servant
2.Her dagger – showing he trusts her that she would never hurt him. He wants her to be protected.
3 The bracelet – he loves her.
4.The key – he is ready to married the selected crown princess to fulfil his duties. and still want to prepare the life that Jae Yi dreams of.
Agree @koalatown. If he gives her the key, that means he is sending her away. Obviously he couldn’t do that yet. I’m not sure if Jae Yi would want to leave him anyway.
Kalimera Ladies,
I don’t think that the Crown Prince will be deposed. The Left Minister knows along with Seja that the Bandits have a Song woman into the Palace and that she is currently the Queen. They also know that the Grand Prince is not a Yi but a Song.
They also know that the Maiden Min Jae didn’t kill the Crown Princess, but won’t be able to do anything since the Right Minister Jo will be requesting to depose the CP.
As for the Queen, she will most likely order the rebels to abduct the Maiden in order to hold her as leverage. She is precious the Crown Prince and the Queen knows it or at least suspects it. At the same time, she doesn’t want to lose her against her “Uncle”.
@Liza The Right Minister Jo doesn’t know that the Queen aka his “niece” is really a Song woman. If he knew he wouldn’t wondering out loud after his minion informed him what the Official he killed told him.
I truly believe that the Shield Investigation Unit will help Seja and the Maiden. Most likely Kim Myung-Jin will find out that the tavern couple are involved somehow. Would he be able to influence them to help her? Afterall, they have both seen that Scholar Park and Eunuch Go were always kind to them.
What I am really worrying about is the Sergeant himself who seems to be delusional.
@Koalatown I agree with you. He is certainly not the right man for the Maiden.
The Sergeant doesn’t understand that No is truly her answer. I am not that sure that he will help them at the beginning.
What I am expecting from the last two episodes?
The Maiden is framed for the Crown Princess murder and the Royal Investingation Unit will take her to prison. At some point, the bandits / rebels will take her away in order to bargain with the Crown Prince. This is what the Queen wants, because she is useful to her and Min Jae is good leverage.
What the Queen doesn’t know is that the Maiden’ts late father left a message where the truth is revealed not only for the parentage of the Grand Prince, but also about the scheme to attack the Palace and take down the Yi family aka the Royal Family.
I don’t know how all this information will be used to Court or to the Royal Investigation Unit in favor of the Maiden. But at some point the King needs to find out the truth about the Queen.
Seja will be at the Easter Palace, the Left Minister and Sergeant will be mourning about the Crown Princess, but they will all know that the Maiden is not the culprit.
Only Tae Kang, the Tavern Keepers couple and the Shield Investigation Unit can help Seja, along with the Ministers who have the King’s Seal. If the King is assassinated for any reason, the seal will be used to mobilize the army.
I do believe that the Right Minister Jo will be dead first and then the Queen will follow. The worst case scenario could be that the Grand Prince would be involved in a way.
We shall see…
@Cleopatra, my #5 forecast was only my theory about how the Queen was introduced by Cho into the palace after the Baeksang killings not knowing that she was pregnant at that time. He might have committed to keep her alive as long as she pretends to be his niece and eventually marries the King so she can be the Queen. She might have agreed to pretend to be his niece so she could become Queen with vengeance as her ulterior motive.
@Viva. Those creepy fish eggs. Now I feel like I’m back in Happiness where I have to side-eye anyone drinking…. now wondering if it’s laced with fish eggs. Agree that she may want to give it to the CP but I am hoping that someone the Shield team (likely GR who is most interested in the fish) learns about the fish and egg properties and shares with the team and they are able to cleverly avoid consuming it.
@Liza. I also don’t think the right minister thinks that the queen is anything but a Jo. If she was a captured Byeokcheon maiden that he is in cahoots with then when the dead officer said that a Song woman came out of his house he should right away put that piece together and go confront her. He must truly believe she’s a Jo although she really might not be. Also he wouldn’t believe he is putting a Jo prince on the throne if he doesn’t think she is one because everyone knows the little prince was born 2 months early and there is a chance he isn’t the king’s and there’s no reason to think that the queen slept with another Jo before marrying the king (ick).
I do think the right minister took advantage of his reward as special citizen after he falsely “put down” the rebellion to strengthen his position in court by having her become queen. It may be that the king somehow saw her and she is/was beautiful and liked her already which made it easier to get her through the selection process. Maybe there wasn’t even a selection process but when CP’s mom died she got elevated to queen. Spoiler… in the book the queen is also a false niece although in that case the uncle was in on it since the king more or less fell in love with her and the uncle wanted power.
I don’t usually watch this genre. I have a question for those who have watched more. Is it typical to try to squeeze all the action/intense plot drama into the last quarter of the show? Do they like to hold suspense until the end?
@Liza,
Yes, I understand that is your theory, but I am answering based to what we have seen so far on the show. The Right Minister Jo doesn’t know the Queen is not his niece, because of the scene we were shown where he was wondering who that Song woman was. @koalatown also commented above about it.
I do believe that the Queen aka the Song woman knew about her pregnancy before her marriage with the King. As I have written before, she either took the identity of a really distant Jo Maiden or she is a distant Jo herself who married that Song and her Uncle doesn’t really know.
So far, her “Uncle” seems to believe that she is harmless…
Kalimera Ladies…
Are you ready for the last two episodes?
Episode 19
I simply LOVE them… Our Seja and his Namja / Maiden.
If that is not LOVE what it is? This Love in its purest form!
I am so happy about tonight’s episode. Yes it had sad moments, but it was so good at the same time…
The Queen believes she has fooled them all, and the Jo Minister got played twice! That made my night ! LMAO!
I am waiting for tomorrow, the Queen to drink that calming tea herself, because she had killed several innocent people.
Her hatred towards Seja is not justified! She is an evil woman and so very unethical. Her evil deeds have not justification any longer. Yes, she was a victim ten years ago, after so many killings she is worst than her “Uncle” the Right Minister Jo. She is also delirious because she believes that the curse she gave to Seja is real.
The Scene that made me angry?
The Court Lady who killed in cold blood the Crown Princess and then killed herself. She was a tool of course and she believed the lies that our Seja killed his Elder Hyungnim, when that was not the case.
@Koalatown, tomorrow we will have our battle and hopefull the ARMY will arrive to finish the deed.
I am glad that the SHIELD Squad managed to secure the tombstone.
The Highlight of the Episode will be the Queen and her downfall. I want a proper punishment not something light. She doesn’t deserve to survive…
Until tomorrow folks!
Ahh. What a heartbreaking but lovely confession scene from JY. The CP even obliquely confessed too when he said something like what is the worth of doing all that she wanted him to do if she isn’t with him. Like nothing is worth doing without her by his side. At that moment she hadn’t even hinted about being ok with dying which he was totally shocked/aghasted to the point he even crouched down to be at her level. That was so moving and meaningful.
I love how the writer consistently refuses to let JY be a maiden in distress. Even when she is being taken to prison and TG tries to rescue her she is fighting while tied up. That head butt must have hurt. Their cat dog friendship is just so funny.
The Sergeant is one noble friend. Do you think when he agreed that he did resent the CP and then followed with saying he should have told him earlier so CP didn’t have to carry the burden… was the resentment about the bride stolen or resentment that the CP didn’t trust him enough or didn’t value their friendship enough to trust him?
Everything is coming together nicely and looking forward to the fight and justice! Can’t wait to see the right minister suffer!
Episode 19
I don’t understand what the Shield team plans to do with the tombstone (I’m sure this will be answered in today’s FINAL episode!). They brought it back from Gaeseong but then… what? I expected them to get it to the king. But how–now that the CP has been deposed…
Wow, that is love, to falsely confess to murder(s) simply to protect your beloved.
Wondering if there is still time for the Sergeant to get together with the princess at this point, what with a battle to be won, secrets to be revealed, etc. I’m hoping he won’t follow the fate of many SML in historical dramas and die before the end.
Hoping that the deposed CP and JY can marry outside of the court and when he returns to being CP she will be able to come along with him, no worries about her not having parents.
I’ll come back after watching Ep 20–it’s been fun to discuss this show with you all here!
Episode 20 *Excited Gal*
Finally all the things we wanted to happen, they did!
I am happy we got the ending we got! More tomorrow!
@bethb. I believe they are supposed to bring back the tomb record to the chief minister to give to the king as proof of the queen being a song and the little prince not his son. Also I assume this will give the king the power to remove the queen and right minister who brought her to court. The king was in cahoots with the left minister and CP in their “dethronement” plan. So technically done to trap the enemies and once this resolved he should be reinstated or maybe not even officially dethroned.
Episode 20
There was a lot to like about this episode. I thought things were tied up nicely (I think that’s the latest kiss I’ve ever seen in a drama though!). I like that JY continued to be a heroine–when the village was told to evacuate the women and girls, she ran back to fight and protect her prince (and the villagers). Tae-Sun’s parents embraced his unusual relationship and gave him a surprising way forward with it. I liked the easy tying up of events by having Tae-Sun read the announcement to the people in the square (with Sam Chil helping do a sort-of call and response)–it was a clever way to do telling/not showing. The CP/king is diagnosed with lovesickness and finally resolves to alleviate it.
And–we finally see someone consuming those horrible fish eggs–though why the queen did it instead of just hanging or poisoning herself I don’t know. Did she want to be a pitiful figure for the rest of her life? Did she think this act would cause the king to take pity on her son? Also for someone who seemed to have a lot of strategies and networks of people to call upon, her slashing out at her “uncle” with a small knife seemed silly and inconsequential. She should have given him some of that fish egg water or had the guy murdered in his sleep or pushed off a cliff by one of her loyal servants.
Looking back there are things that still have me scratching my head. I know the people of Byeokcheon suffered horribly, but does that justify someone ordering the shaman to kill innocent people and to carve a message on their bodies–including, especially, a newborn! I don’t know who exactly was behind those murders. I assume it was the monk–the supposedly peaceful monk who helped raise orphans–because the shaman had been hypnotized to perform the murders and the shaman was the only person who could perform hypnosis. But how can a man who helps children in need target a baby? Weird.
Another thing that doesn’t make sense, in retrospect, is why go to the trouble of all that intrigue and setting up of the CP to drive him crazy and spread rumors about his strength, etc., when they could have just given him some of that fish egg water, rendering him incompetent.
Right now I’m thinking the show would have been tighter (and wrapped up sooner) without things like the murders/carved names and the shaman and the snake. I’m not sure what it added to the plot. It made me have less sympathy for the people of Byeokcheon knowing they supported the people behind the murders. Were they aware of what was happening–including the murders of JY’s family?
I think it will help me put it all together by watching it again. I am not talking about a full, intensive rewatch but just dipping into the scenes that I remembered as being important (for example, zipping through any scene where the Right State Councilor is doing that evil, cackling laugh). If I see anything else, I’ll note it here (but it may take me a few days to get back to it).
I loved every minute. I binge watched the last four episodes and was very pleased with how everything ended up. It took me a minute to realize that it was the Crown Princess who had been killed and not the younger princess after all.
I did think the Queen trying to strike out with the pitiful knife was weak especially given all of the killing she had authorized. But I did not feel sorry for her taking the fish eggs. I think in her mind she did not want to see what would happen to her son (maybe she feared harsher punishment which enabled her to keep the grudge alive. I thought it was interesting when the King said how happy he was with her and the son (almost like maybe he knew that she was pregnant but it didn’t matter because of the joy they brought into the palace.)
I didn’t understand the part with the lady’s maid and the teacher and him having to give up his name and having a second name. His parents were happy to have him unite with the “former slave girl” both for practical and for wanting the best mate for their child. But gives with the names….
I thought the best friend was THEE best friend in the world. He put the CP’s needs before his own. Question: Do we think he would have always done this or perhaps it was brought on by that earlier failure of loyalty when he thought his father might have been involved in the plot to harm the CP and lied until he confirmed that the father was not. Either way he consistently kept thinking and worrying about the CP’s needs. That was impressive.
Do we think he will end up with CP’s sister?
@Liza. You were right! The queen was not a Jo nor stole a Jo identity. She was just a beautiful courtesan married to Song who sought revenge for his death. She caught the eye of the right minister who thought to use her with the king not realizing that she was Song’s wife. Personally I think it was a little weak that the right minister who somehow figured out who JY was with a few clues did not immediately suspect the queen. I mean he knows she’s the only one from B village that was at his home.
I can’t believe they really did the 1 year time skip to have the kiss and OST in the last minutes of the show. That was one of my predictions that I had hoped was wrong. I still enjoyed it but would have liked it better if it was longer and earlier. The song is just lovely.
I assume during the year Hwan was busy convicting the right minister and justice minister of their crimes to be able to punish them with quartering. Also convicting the other corrupt court ministers that got exiled. He had to reinstate Beoycheon and determine reparations. He had to create that new civil servant test for B subjects who had been prejudiced against, he had to convince the court to abolish the rules about wife selection, and do usual governing and stabilize the country. Also he was not sleeping and pining away and waiting for the sergeant to fully give up on his contract marriage.
I guess that is what fan fiction is for- putting together the rest of the story.
@Koalatown I think the Right Minister did not know that the Queen was from B village. Queen had a scene with her Song husband before they were married showing her to be a courtesan. She went back to being a courtesan after her husband was killed as part of her revenge plot. I think I also predicted that the Right Minister will not kill the Queen despite knowing she is Song’s wife due to his obsession to rule by continuing to let everyone believe her son is his grandson and King’s son and using this info as her weakness.
@Liza thanks that makes sense. @Kelley I think MJ’s family basically disowned him so he could be with GR a commoner. If he is disowned and isn’t on their family registry he needs a new last name so he went with the one she wrote wrong when she was learning to write. Cute!
@Kelley Sergeant did turn out to be the best friend. I can’t tell from the letter if he is rejecting her by telling her to visit other better mountains or if he is just too dense to tell they are overtures like the princess seems to think. We know she is a persistent one so maybe she’ll eventually wear him and Hwan down?
@BethB. I think the tavern guy and most of the other rebels just followed orders but mostly didn’t know what was happening until after the fact. From the flashback it seemed the shaman was the one that convinced the villagers to send their letter of complaint to the king which resulted in their slaughter so he felt guilty. Unfortunately I think the author trying to bring in elements of the book and merge them with her own stuff creates some of this odd storytelling. The 4 direction murder was solved by the FL early in the book to prove her worth to the prince and gain his trust. Aside from being a crime to solve there was no other backstory. The murderer had disaster fall on his family and he was the sole survivor who joined a Buddhist sect which believed disasters could be passed onto others so by killing people according to auspicious dates for the 4 phases of suffering he thought those would not happen to him. The last one which FL solves was birth and it was supposed to be the pregnant lady not child the killer was targeting but the leads get there in time to prevent it and catch the killer. I think trying to tie this mystery to the ghost letter and rebels is what makes it hard to be sympathetic. Assuming the monk hypnotized the shaman and told her to spread the fear about the Songs destroying the Yi’s it is possible that her own beliefs led her choose her victims. Who knows though since the whole hypnotic petals versus fish eggs wasn’t well explained. In the book the fish plays a role and it’s eggs induce paranoia and obsessions that the person already have. It does make them behave against their personality like committing suicide and blaming an innocent loved brother. The leads and coroner discover this when they find fish skeleton in the pharynx of these dead crazed people but it takes them until the 4th book to figure it out. Would have been nice if they had kept that part.
Dear all, thank you for the fun times with this show. I am so happy we got our HEA. Did you notice in the last scene when Hwan holds out his hand to JY and she looks down and then up at him… he gives her a slight nod waiting… then she puts her hand in his.. the look of wonderment and relief on his face? Then it’s followed by a slight smile and then a look of determination before he pulls her in for a hug. I took all this to mean that he really felt like she was doing well in the house she wanted teaching kids in contrast to him being ill and sleepless pining with lovesickness. He wasn’t totally sure she wanted to give it all up to join him in the palace with all its usual restrictions. He was giving her a choice. When she consciously made that choice by taking his hand he was amazed at her choice and determined to let her know that he sees/knows her like the OST says without words. He knows how strong and talented she is and that he is determined to find a way that she can be all that and have a useful place in the palace beside him.
Sigh… also the music video for PHS’ OST really captures their relationship if you haven’t had a chance to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQN0ab-tOrY