In case you missed them, the butterflies were everywhere in Episode 1 and Episode 4.

In Episode 1, we first saw the butterfly as a jade pendant hanging from the book Mangunrok.

Next, the butterfly became an insignia of sort on King YiHeon’s headband while he was hunting.

Then, we saw real butterflies flitting in the forest and landing on the net of JiYeong.

After that, we were transported to the chambers of the Dowager Queen where she and the other royal females were informed of the king’s absence in the ritual. We could see butterfly ornaments in the wigs of the ladies.

The Dowager Queen had two small gold butterfly accessories on each side of her wig.

The king’s stepmother, and the two other concubines had monstrous butterfly ornaments pinned smack dab in the middle of their wigs.

Last, in the flashback while JiYeong was feeding the king outside the hut, we saw in his memory of his mother that she too wore a butterfly pin on her wig.

In Episode 4, the butterflies show up again.

When the Dowager Queen and her three female sidekicks attend the cooking competition, they all wear the butterfly hair ornaments.

(just look at the scene for yourself, lol)

It’s notable that the evil concubine, MokJu, possesses no such butterfly trinket, or at least she hasn’t worn it yet.

So, what does this butterfly mean to us, if it means anything at all?

I can think of two significances.

One, the butterfly indicates JiYeong’s previous timeslip.

It tells me that, in a previous timeloop(s) – or back when JiYeong first became intimate with the king that he’d written the Mangunrok for her – she had been considered the king’s “favored” person so much so that he attached a butterfly pendant to his manuscript.

The butterfly ornament seems reserved only for the chosen ones. The fact that the king left the jade pendant in the book implies that he regarded her as someone precious to him, and entitled to possess the mark of kingly favor.

An aside —

I think this explains why she addressed the Dowager Queen, “halmeoni” or grandmother. To many, her blunder may simply be an honest mistake as she isn’t accustomed to Joseon period’s royal protocols. But to me, this may be a Freudian slip. She has a memory of an informal relationship with the Dowager Queen buried in her subconscious mind.

Morever, this explains the king’s sudden headache after the cooking competition and when he visits MokJu. He thinks that he’s seeing double, or that he’s in altered state. To me, these incidents are probably some sort of déjà vu. He’s feeling disoriented because he has lived through the same experience in a previous timeslip. Anyway, that’s just my theory. If it works, it’s well and good. But if it doesn’t, oh well….

Two, the butterfly also reminds us of the butterfly effect.

JiYeong’s time-travel may appear to be a one-off, but the existence of the Mangunrok, and its disappearance in Episode 4 when the king YiHeon created a new one for her, indicate that she has time-traveled – or looped back in time – at least, twice.

Each time she traveled back to Joseon, she’s determined not to change history one bit. However, it can’t be helped that even the slightest – and seemingly harmless – change caused by her time travel to the initial/original/historical setting will produce a dramatically different outcome in the end.

This is how the “butterfly effect” trope is typically depicted in these kdramas. Her time-travel causes a domino effect that gradually, incrementally, but inevitably changes history, whether she likes it or not.

As it is, I think she’s the reason why Yeonhuigun is known to be a gourmet tyrant. In a previous time-travel, she might have unwittingly altered the image of King YiHeon as an absolute terror and given him this extra humanizing dimension of a foodie.

Lol. I wouldn’t be surprised if after this time-travel, she not only recreates Yeonhuigun into a gourmet genius, but also tones down his tyrant image, and turns him into a misunderstood, justice-seeking ruler.

Moving on to my Ep 4 write-up.