Confession: I skipped Episodes 5 to 11. I expected to have a hard time catching up with the story, but I guess I didn’t miss much.
1. The name “Aengcho”
In the previous reincarnation, the young Jang MuJin names the young girl Aengcho because she’s tiny and ugly like a primrose.
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source: thespruce.com
Like the snowdrops and crocuses, the primrose is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. However, in English, to walk on the “primrose path” means to take the easy route (or the path of least resistance) only to end up in dire situations. Thus, when the young Mujin chased after Aengcho in the countryside, I thought to myself, “Uh oh. Nothing good will come of this.”
2. HongJo’s memory is awakening
I like that remembrance works both ways. One of my major gripes in “100 Days, My Prince” was that only the Prince took to heart their first meeting. The female lead completely forgot him. I hated that imbalance, especially since there was much ado about the Prince having amnesia!
100DMP was the first screenplay of that writer so I’m glad that lessons were learned.
To me, it comes as no surprise that the Bloodied Hand belonged to HongJo. Duh. Who else would it belong to? We were told as early as Episode 1 by that Shaman Eunwol.
ShinYu: Were you threatened by that civil servant? (Meaning, HongJu.) You told me not to touch it. Why did you allow it? She is…a total stranger at that.
Shaman: You killed that woman. The owner of the bloody hand that caresses your cheek. Karma will swallow you. And you will struggle in horrible pain. But all the pain and curses will end. Finally, the owner of the wooden box showed up.
It’s ironic though that, in the beginning of the episode, HongJo was excited to be able to share his dreams.
HJ: I now understand what you said.
SY: What did I say?
HJ: You said you saw me in your dreams. I saw you, too.
SY: What did you see?
HJ: You were crushing on me and chasing me around even then.
SY: It’s probably a form of avoidance your brain developed in a very anxious situation.
I like that he downplayed the significance of her awakened memories. If and when she discovered that he’d killed her in their previous life, she would fear him.
HJ: Is that so? Anyway, it was so vivid that it almost felt real. I even had this thought for a while. Just like what Eunwol said, our destinies must be inseverable.
SY: You can tell that even without dreaming.
HJ: Still I want to know about the dream you had. If we really had the same dream, that’s fascinating, right?
She sounded so naïve here, and he couldn’t tell her that, based on his experience, the dream wasn’t at all fascinating by horrifying.
HJ: What’s the matter?
SY: (hugging her)
And I thought that hug was a good visual foreshadowing of the embrace at the end of this episode.
She didn’t know that a) her dreams of ShinYu would eventually turn into nightmares about him, and b) he had been having these nightmares of her but he chose to ignore them, focusing instead on the present moment with her.
HJ: I’ll be honest with you. I saw something I didn’t want to see.
SY: Is it the dream again? Is that why you met EunWol?
HJ: Yes.
SY: I don’t know what she told you, but you said it didn’t matter. You said what matters is the present. Don’t you remember?
I dislike the director’s shot selection here. Instead of showing us HongJu’s bland face, the director should have kept the camera focused on ShinYu’s face as he expressed his hope that HongJu would remain undaunted by her dreams.
This would have set up the contrast in his facial expressions better. One second, he was pleading with her not to waver in her feelings for him. Then, the next second, he was flinching away from her touch.
To me, the contrast in his ShinYu’s facial expressions was important to witness because it would have highlighted the conflict between his conscious/self-avowed love for HongJu and his unconscious/unspoken phobia of her. He lived with that bloody hand terrorizing him for so long that he couldn’t help recoiling from her hand when she moved to touch his cheek like the bloody hand.
HJ: The bloody hand. Did you know that it was me?
SY: (eyes tearing up)
Of course, he knew! I don’t have to have to watch Eps 5 to 11 to guess that he knew all along.
Then, flashback to their previous life when he stabbed her with the knife. Aengcho told him, “Whoever kills me would be cursed.” Then with her bloodied hand, she cupped his cheek.
My theory here is that killing her was an act of love on his part. He had to kill her in order to free her or release her from something more dire. He knew that he’d be cursed forever but he was willing to bear the burden.
It’s the reverse “Goblin” trope. Lol.
source: fanfare
3. The mean girl NaYeon
a. She was cheating with the crummy CEO of Haum Construction who ShinYu successfully defended in Episode 1.
Ugh! I see what the screenwriter did there. She was reassuring us that ShinYu was a “morally upright” male lead and that he wasn’t really “cheating” on his ex-girlfriend with HongJu because NaYeon did it first.
But I don’t buy it. Basically, the screenwriter is utilizing the lame “Tu quoque” or “You too!” argument which asserts that ShinYu could cheat on Nayeon because she was cheating on him, too. Fortunately, life — and logic — don’t work that way.
b. She told her dad, the Mayor, that she and ShinYu really broke up for good and that she wanted to give him a “parting gift.”
By “parting gift” she meant a painful lesson that ShinYu wouldn’t forget in a long time. She wanted some kind of reprisal for her emotional distress.
To be honest, I find it tiresome to watch secondary characters like NaYeon because they’re boxed in to be villains through and through. There’s no nuance or subtlety to NaYeon’s motivation. She only exists in the story to be a mean girl. And to me, this missing arc or character trajectory is a sign of laziness on the screenwriter’s part.
4. The stupid and simpering HongJu
As much as I’m annoyed with NaYeon I’m more annoyed with HongJu’s foolhardiness. How brainless was she to go to the murderer’s flower shop alone?
Enough said.
And then, she didn’t understand why ShinYu was getting mad at her for venturing on her own.
HJ: Why are you so angry?
Ugh. Sure, this was a dumb question written by the screenwriter. (Only the terminally obtuse wouldn’t get why he was angry.) But it was even a dumber performance by this actress. (Her eyes didn’t look confused at all.)
SY: He might be a murderer. You could’ve run into this dangerous man alone.
HJ: Who else would I come with?
Ugh. She was playing the pity card again. Didn’t she have colleagues??
SY: With me! At least tell me about it.
HJ: Why should I?
SY: Because that’s what couples do.
Goodness! What lame acting. She dilated her eyes, and batted her eyelash. I guess she was supposed to look flustered, but Betty Boop looked more convincing to me.
HJ: (shyly) Ah. I understand why you were worried.
This whole scene was cringeworthy because:
a. it was contrived to show ShinYu worrying about his girlfriend, and to demonstrate the actor Rowoon at what he does best: nagging.
b. the actress has no charm to pull off this level naivety. She only looks dumb for not recognizing the danger she put herself in.
c. far from realizing the gravity of her action, she was secretly pleased that somebody was worried about her safety.
d. she didn’t learn her lesson. Later on, she would go off on her own, without apprising ShinYu of her whereabouts.
5. The knight in shining armor
In a way, I don’t blame the female viewers for falling for Rowoon in this drama because how many times did his character come to the assistance of HongJu in this episode alone? But his heroism is tedious to watch because I do wish the damsel in distress to suffer some consequences for her silliness.
6. What I want to see in this week’s episode:
a. the real story of Aengcho and MuJin: I can’t believe that the screenwriter delayed the backstory this long!
b. no more cloying dialogues between ShinYu and HongJu. Can’t they talk like a normal couple rather than two high schoolers flirting with each other? The banter was good in Episode 4 but it’s getting old now.
c. HongJu using her self-preservation and survival instincts.
Thank you, @packmule3. Yes Hong Joo is foolhardy. There’s no reason for her to do any of those things alone. I’m tired of mentally yelling at the screen to her.
I was surprised that Shin Yu knew that Nayeon cheated on him and with whom and for how long. What could this mean in terms of his relationship with Nayeon? If not for Hong Joo, would he have still gone ahead with a marriage with Nayeon knowing that? Did it not really matter to him until the moment when he was firm about trying to break with Nayeon? That all seemed a bit dodgy to me.
I agree with you that in their past lives, Shin Yu killed her to avoid something even worse happening (to her?/to other innocent people?). The history says that she was killed by dismemberment, which may have been what was intended. It seemed to me that she was also distressed that the curse would fall upon him.
I would have liked more eye rolls. 😂
Yes! This is what I said that I wished SY parted ways with NY already instead of prolonging it as if he’s not the only guilty one. The point is he is still with her when he started to have feelings for HJ.
Anyway I like the nagging Rowoon. 😛 I wonder if he had any NG’s saying those long dialogues? 😂
Kumawo!
Kalimera @Packmule and Ladies!
I want to see what is exactly the involvement of the Gardener guy.
He seems to do dark magic on them both, so he has a grudge that maybe has to do with their story in the past. My theory is that the Gardener guy remembers his past life as well. We shall see.
@Cleopatra, I think that you are correct about the Gardener remembering his past. I wonder if the red hand started about the time of his wife’s death. I wondered also (my imagination) if she had been some sort of sacrifice to his spells.
Personally, rather than ugly, I think that these wild primroses are quite adorable and always welcome, even as they are a humble bloom.
@Fern,
I think that Shin Yu grew up with the Red Hand.
It has nothing to do with the death of the gardener’s wife. I believe though, that Hong Joo indeed healed Shin Yu with the second spell, but the gardener made black magic on him and brought it back.
The fact that her remains had intact her hands means something in my opinion. We shall see if her demise means something or she found out about his diabolical side and he killed her because of that.
I agree, @Fern. I think that primroses and the other first bloomers of spring are pretty because after a long drab winter, they’re the first splash of colors in the garden. So they’re a very welcome sight to behold. My favorite though is the grape hyacinth (muscari). I have them lining up the border of our walks and their purple color is so gay and fun.
I also have creeping phlox. Boy! Whoever thought of calling it “creeping” phlox wasn’t kidding. The gardeners planted about 8 small about the size of a hand) of white, pink and blue creeping phlox and now they’re crept up and covered the sloping side of our yard. It looks like a big carpet in the springtime. I just have to remember to trim them back hard in the fall or they’ll completely take over that mound by mid-spring and encroach on the territories of the daffodils, irises, and tulips.
Lol. My husband used to say that our garden in springtime looks like the Warring States of China with one flower group threatening to annex the other states.
I like your theory, @Cleopatra, that the Gardener guy remembers his past life.
@agdr03,
I smiled when ShinYu told HJ that his mother was cute but HJ was a lit bit cuter than his mom. I knew it! I said in my Ep 4 Quick Takes that I liked how he indulged his mom’s eccentricities because it was a sign that he would do the same for HongJu as she was an odd one, too. He wasn’t like his father who had no patience with his wife and found his wife an embarrassment.
Ah! Dismemberment, @Fern? So what happened to being stabbed in the heart?
The reports on AengCho’s death aren’t consistent, are they? I wonder why.
I think it was good that you skipped a few episodes because there were those scenes of SY’s parents and I’m like, are they just supposed to be funny? I mean I didn’t find them funny at all. 😬
Yes, SY and his Mom are similar like that. 😊
@Packmule3,
That makes sense, because he is cursing Shin Yu, but also Hong Joo.
What you have missed so far:
1. The gardener made a person like straw doll using Hong Joo’s pj’s – he stole them, where he cursed Shin Yu with a knife in the heart, almost near the shrine.
2. The Gardener teaming up with NaYeon, who brought him Shin Yu’s shirt and Hong Joo’s woolen gloves. He used them in a ritual of black magic and he put that curse into the plant that NaYeon brought to Shin Yu’s office in the City Hall. After that ritual the Bloody Hand came back with a vengeance.
3.The Gardener was the one who made that pit and then pushed Hong Joo inside, causing her to remember her past life.
His actions are super weird. He also has a lot of yellow talismans in the place he is doing his black magic.
@Packmule3,
I forgot to mention that when the Gardener did #1:
Shin Yu was sleeping for some days in a hospital and in the meantime he remembered his past life. At the same time, the stalker came to Hong Joo and she was so afraid that she became sick herself. Then she was super worried about Groot because he didn’t answer to her messages…
@packmule, I’ll have to google creeping phlox. It may be called something else here. But the grape muscari sound delightful.
@Cleopatra, I can’t recall if we understood when the hand started to haunt SY. That’s why I thought of the wife’s death as part of the black magic that caused it, particularly the thing with her intact hands. I mean, how? Dipped in wax or some other preservative? Euuuuwwwww.
I think that SY’s father is incredibly selfish and immature. I don’t find his interactions with anyone funny. It wouldn’t surprise me if he found a way to get ‘cured’ of the disease he had earlier at the expense of his son. The reason I say that is that he seems to be using SY as a breeder to produce another generation without considerations for his health or feelings.
@packmule, I wondered about the discrepancy between the stabbing and the dismemberment. There are a few possibilities:
1. Aengcho was condemned to the dismemberment, but SY’s ancestor thwarted that by stabbing. Official accounts might only want to mention the ‘correct’ punishment.
2. She didn’t die from the stabbing and also was dismembered.
3. She died and was officially punished by dismemberment after death. –Similar to Oliver Cromwell (don’t ever say the English aren’t blood thirsty.)
“The bodies of Cromwell, Henry Ireton, (General in the Parliamentary Army during the Civil War), and John Bradshaw, (the President of the High Court of Justice), were removed from their graves. They were hanged in chains at Tyburn before being beheaded.” –Royal Museums Greenwich
There may be other reasons. I hope it’s explained. Not really looking forward to the angst, but want some resolution and a decent ending.