I was about to write my review of Episodes 1 and 2 when I was sidetracked by “Shine on Me.” I have no choice but to delay it further because I’m excited to discuss Episode 3.

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You all should know by now that Jane Austen, and her “Pride and Prejudice” serve as my ultimate benchmark for romance. One of the reasons is that I love how formal and reserved language conveys deep emotions as well as subtle insults and clever repartées.

For instance, instead of an outright “I love you,” Mr. Darcy goes, “In vain I have struggled. It will not do! My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. In declaring myself thus I’m fully aware that I will be going expressly against the wishes of my family, my friends, and, I hardly need add, my own better judgement.”

In response, instead of cursing him for such an insulting declaration, Elizabeth drawls, “You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.”

Not only does the subversiveness of the dialogues appeal to me, but I find the romantic tension produced by verbal sparring of the couple more titillating than a kiss scene in “Sex and the City.”

I’m reminded of P&P while watching this show.

Let me back up a bit and begin with the final scene from Episode 2 because it segues into the opening scene in Episode 3.

Our hero, the Grand Prince Yi Yeol (YY), finally locates EunJo in the Hyeminseo (the equivalent of the public hospital during the Joseon period). Our hero, EunJo, is a physician who moonlights as the Gil-Dong (the equivalent of Robin Hood during the Joseon period). After getting rid of her disguise, she’s fled to the Hyeminseo to escape YY. She fears that he’ll discover her secret identity.

When he suddenly appears at the gate of the Hyeminseo, she quickly turns her back on him.

EJ: (thinking to herself) What do I do? What should I do? (then disguising her voice) Hyeminseo is closed. Please return home.
YY: Was it you? It’s you, right?
EJ: (thinking to herself) Should I run away now?
YY: Right. It is you.

Then, he starts uttering phrases. To a casual spectator, the words sound random. But to my ears, he’s reciting poetry.

YY: Embroidered shoes.
EJ: (thinking) Embroidered shoes?
YY: Flower rain.
EJ: (still thinking) Flower rain? (and then she remembers!)
YY: (smiling) Got you. A whole bush of flowers.

Let me explain why I think he’s reciting poetry.

The embroidered shoes are the new red floral shoes that she wore on their first meeting. She didn’t want them to get muddied. So, she took them off, and he gave her his rope slippers to wear. He remembers their first meeting.

The flower rain refers – not to the unexpected shower of rain that had them seeking shelter in the hut – but to their night encounter when he waited for her to come. He was gazing at the flower petals, cascading down on him like rain, when she suddenly appeared. She ran to him and gave him a kiss. He remembers their second meeting.

As for the whole bush of flowers, AS FAR AS I KNOW a flower bush hasn’t figured yet in their past, so they don’t have any memory of it. To me, then, this is his promise of things to come.

I interpret his words to mean that he’ll get her – or prepare for her – a whole bunch of flowers if this will bestow happiness and blessings on her life so filled with “poverty, wretchedness, misery, and tears.” In short, he wants to give her a happy life.

It’s been fixed on his mind that Eunjo suffers in silence.

Take for instance when one of her patients scratches her hand. He notices the cuts and, without saying a word, rips off the ribbon from his hanbok and bandages her hand with it.

EJ: (flustered) Leave it.
YY: My hands can at least help with your wound.
EJ: I’ll take care of it later.
YY: (ignores her and continues bandaging) Consider this as repayment for tending to my wound the other day. I can’t go around owing anyone favors. That’s why I’m doing this.
EJ: Tsk. Fine. Let’s call it even.
YY: You don’t even realize you’re hurt. Are you always this dense?

He’s using sarcasm to express genuine concern. Just like he wanted to anonymously give her trunks loaded with much-needed medicinal herbs for the Hyeminseo, he contains his strong feelings because social etiquette at that time requires restrain from any sort of impassioned declaration or preferential treatment.

EJ: (confidingly) You know how flustered I was, didn’t you? Of course, once the tension is gone, that’s when it hurts and all that.
YY: (suddenly switching topic) What’s your name?

Caught off guard, she gives it to him. If we’re keeping score on who knows more about the other person, YY now has collected one more information about her than she has about him. Remember: they both keep secrets about themselves. He doesn’t want her to know that he’s the idle Grand Prince and she doesn’t want him to know that she’s the infamous GilDong.

EJ: EunJo from the Hong family…yes. Why do you ask?
YY: Just curious.
EJ: Why did you come here?
YY: I’m curious about that, too.

He finishes tying the bandage in a pretty bow.

This tells me that he’s capable of learning to tie the bow of his hanbok, but he’s been asking her to do it as a form of indulgence, that is, he wants her to indulge him, to spoil him. He’s just being needy.

Another instance when it’s become clear to him that EunJo is stoically enduring hardship on her own is when they perched on the roof and gazed at the moonlit sky.

YY: What were you looking at?
EJ: Just the night.
YY: I hate the night. It sits there peacefully, as if nothing ever happened.

He means that moon stays in the skies, unbothered and unconcerned by the troubles of men. I guess he doesn’t want to conduct himself like that. But no matter how much he wants to help his people, his hands are tied. As the Grand Prince, he can’t be seen as meddling with state affairs as his brother, the King, may see this as harboring an ambition to take over the throne. His brother the King already warned him once that the only way he could protect his own mother (the Queen Dowager) is to steer clear of the King, palace politics, and civic affairs.

Ha! I don’t think he realizes that he wants to be a Gil-Dong, too, but with a wider scope, wider influence.

EJ: That’s why I like the night. Especially, the night I see from atop the roof. From here, people look small, houses look small, even the distant palace looks small. And my worries seem to shrink along with them.
YY: What worries? I could share them out of kindness.
EJ: I’ll decline. If someone supported me, I might want to quit everything.

This is one thing I like about her. She insists on her independence, and self-reliance.

YY: Then, quit. Whatever it is, it seems like you could quit at least once. If needed, I’ll make you quit.

Lol. What he means is that as the Grand Prince he has the power, authority, and clout to make things easy for her. Why, he can even order her to quit.

EJ: Hmph. You talk like you know something.
YY: Even if I don’t know anything, I’m someone who can make you quit whatever it is.

They smile at each other.

EJ: Omo. Do I have a powerful backer now? It shrank a little more than before.

Pinching her thumb and index finger together, she shows him how tiny her worries/problems have shrunk.

YY: (chiding her) Just that? It should shrink by everything except that little bit.

He widens the gap between his thumb and index finger and shows her. He means that her worries should all but vanish completely with him by her side.

She giggles at his bravado.

Later, when they’re back on the ground again, he circles back to the topic of bringing her respite from her worries/problems.

EJ: From what I can see, you seem like a decent person. But you don’t seem to be aware of it yourself. Or are you just pretending not to be?
YY: How can you be so sure just from seeing me a few times?
EJ: It’s intuition honed through years of social experience.

Meaning, as a physician, she gets to be with and work with people from all walks of life.

EJ: Anyway, about this, it’s truly fortunate that you resolved this matter.

She’s talking about him arresting the Chief Inspector and restoring the stolen money and goods to the people he stole from. She believes that YY had a hand in exiling the crooked official and restoring justice to the people.

YY: Fortunate? What exactly do you mean?
EJ: I mean, you’re intelligent, and accomplished in many ways. That sort of thing.
YY: Don’t say that so lightly!

Meaning, he doesn’t want her flattering him because he may get the wrong idea.

EJ: (not getting him) What?
YY: “Poverty, misery, wretchedness, tears.” It sounds like I might be one of the few fortunate things amid all that misery.

He stares at her intently, solemnly.

To me, it’s dawning on him that he’s become one of the few things in her life that brings her joy. He’s realizing that she regards him like a ray of light and hope in her otherwise dark life. And this realization imposes a heavy responsibility on him, that is, the responsibility for providing her happiness. But he doesn’t seem to find it distasteful and vexing.

EJ: (brushing off the idea) I simply meant it was fortunate.

Meaning, he’s overthinking it. Hahaha.

EJ: (switching topic) Follow me. Instead of returning your robe string, I’ll change your dressing. (threateningly) Before the Chief kicks us out.
YY: (distracted) Who’s getting kicked out?

The conversation continues later.

EJ: You must be the offspring of a very distinguished family, huh?
YY: One of the most distinguished in Joseon.

Hahaha. His late father was the KING. You can’t get a more distinguished family than that.

YY: Just know that for now. I’m sparing you the shock by not telling you all at once.
EJ: And I treated such an esteemed person like a fool. You must have found it terribly unfair, huh?

She’s referring to their first meeting when she jumped in front of him and defended him from a noble. Lying to rescue him, she claimed him to be her family servant suffering from mental issues.

YY: (smiling) It was strange. A strange woman not even half my size, standing defiantly before me. That’s why I became curious.

And he stops to wonder.

YY: Was that when it began?

He means love, of course. Curiosity is the euphemism for love, and becoming curious about her is falling in love with her. I told you, didn’t I? This episode reminds me of Jane Austen.

YY remembers her kissing him and is flustered. Remember: she’s a thief because not only is she Gil-Dong but she also stole his first kiss.

YY: That’s ridiculous. That really exists?
EJ: What does?

He doesn’t answer her. He just stares at her.

EJ: Why are you looking at me like that? It’s embarrassing.
YY: Same here. I’m embarrassed by myself, too.
EJ: What?

It’s too funny how she has no clue what he’s talking about.

YY: What I’m about to say will be even more embarrassing. Do you have a man you like?

I guess he’s right. That question that just came out of his mouth was even more embarrassing than long stare he gave her.

But I get where he’s going with this. He’s asking permission. He’s asking her if she has a lover or betrothed because he would like to replace that person and be the one for her.

EJ: (blinking) Why do you ask?

She’s blinking here because she can’t lie. She’s already contracted to marry a bedridden octogenarian, the father of the powerful Secretary Im SaHyeon.

YY: Even if there is, it’s none of my concern. You have time tomorrow, right? Make time for me.

True. It doesn’t matter to him one bit whether she has someone she likes or not. He has the Joseon version of “droit du seigneur”. He can marry anybody he wants because he is after all the Grand Prince.

But we can also view this situation as the Joseon version of the Pokemon game, “I choose you.” He can choose his Pokemon to connect with because he’s the trainer.

EJ: (confused) What are you doing now?
YY: I’m making a move on you.
EJ: (blinking) ???
YY: (literally making a move on her by taking one step closer to her, lol) And starting now, I intend to do it properly.

He smiles.

Public service announcement. The screenshot doesn’t do him justice. You all MUST watch this actor do his “no-teeth” smile. It’s one of the sweetest and most innocent smiles an aloof guy can make. I’ve seen many handsomer actors than this guy, but his smile is first-rate.

EJ: That…that is…(steps backward)…I’m soon to be married.

Then, the Other Guy barges in on them.

Oooof! The OG is a cutie-patootie too in a tsundere kind of way. You have to watch the show to see what I mean.

Will end here and have breakfast.