Ibisfeather wrote:

So Jae I is conflicted about the falsity of his own status and the treatment of his real mother, so he takes it out on someone whose status is openly and similiarly ambiguous. In the habit of bad characters, he projects his self-hatred (?not sure..) onto the nearest available target.

We can all see that Im JaeYi (IJ) is in the same situation as EunJo, if not, worse off.

One, they’re both children of a nobleman and a commoner. (If I’m following the story correctly) EunJo’s mother was a servant (or nobi), but her freedom was already bought and paid for by EunJo.

As for IJ, his mother was in a worse social class than a servant. She was a gisaeng, a courtesan. IJ’s father, Secretary Im, never acknowledged her, and IJ was raised as the son of the legal wife. If the truth is made public about his birth, then life as IJ knows it comes to an end.

Two, EunJo is an eolnyeo, and is considered an “illegitimate” child. She can’t inherit land or wealth, take exams, etc. But these obstacles don’t matter to her anymore. She never hid her parentage nor pretended to be somebody she wasn’t.

Plus her job as physician in the public hospital Hyeminseo establishes her own status. She accomplished her solid reputation as a doctor on her own merit.

IJ, on the other hand, lives a lie. He’s an illegitimate child also. So like EunJo, he can’t inherit land or wealth, take exams, etc.

But since his father “bought” him from the gisaeng and raised him as an offspring of the legal wife, he can claim wealth, honor, prestige like a legitimate child.

In this Episode 4, his father warned him to know his place. That was a veiled threat: one wrong move and he’s out. His aristocratic life he so enjoys will collapse like a house of cards if he doesn’t do his father’s bidding.

IJ knew from a young age that he’s “bought” to be used as a pawn in his father’s mad quest to obtain power. That’s why we heard IJ, when he was a kid, quoting a line about “the beast I bought was quite expensive.” I guess he realized when he grew up that he was to nothing more than a breeding bull in his father’s crude form of animal husbandry.

Remember this scene from Episode 1 after he met his fiancée and scared her away?

IJ: Marriage is a gamble. I intend to gain far more than the stake I’ve placed.
Gisaeng: Why?
IJ: (nonchalantly) From the king to the commoners, everyone secures wealth, honor, power and status through marriage. I must bet on an even bigger game.
Gisaeng: (incredulous) She’s the niece of Her Majesty the Queen. Could there be a bigger stake than that?
IJ: For example, affection?

Methinks IJ is tired of being treated by his father like something expedient, exploitable, profitable. I don’t think he was joking when he said that he was in search of love in his marriage.

Three, speaking of love, EunJo is undoubtedly loved by her father. He cherishes her and is profoundly sorry for being incapable of providing her a better situation in life.

That scene where he secretly took a menial job as copywriter just so he could afford to give EunJo silk clothes and beautiful shoes was especially touching. His gifts were precious because they were given with love.

In comparison. IJ knew no love from his father. His father made sure that IJ knew that he was only good for one thing. “The name I gave you, wealth, and honor. You can’t abandon a single one. That is who you are.”

Meaning, as his father created him out of nothing, his father can destroy everything he has: name, wealth, prestige, honor, and reduce him to nothing. In short, what the father giveth, the father taketh away.

Four, the concept of filial piety is earned.

In EunJo’s case, she displays her filial devotion freely. Because she’s been given love by her parents, she has no problem sacrificing her life in an act of service and protection for her parents. She knows very well that the arranged marriage doesn’t benefit her in any way, but she goes on with it for the sake of her parents.

Sec Im: I knew he cherished you, though you are an eolnyeo. You are a daughter only to him. To me, you are merely a servant.
EJ: Then, please let him continue to misunderstand. Until the wedding, please let my family believe that I’m going to be the young master’s concubine.
Sec Im: Why must I do that?
EJ: His Excellency (meaning, her father) is not so cruel a man as to send his daughter to marry a widower past seventy. You know his nature very well, My Lord. Moreover, if His Excellency weren’t in his current state due to the Gyeongo Yer incident, would you have such a request to my father, who even served as Minister of War?

Touche!

Sec Im: (vexed) Are you saying I humiliated your father? Go on, keep talking.
EJ: (pretending) Please consider this marriage my selfish desire. A common wish to live comfortably in a powerful household.
Sec Im: Your filial devotion is truly admirable.
EJ: (bowing) Not compared to yours, My Lord.

This is a back-handed compliment. He’s filial alright but gross. He’s marrying her off to his 75-year-old bedridden father. Lol.

Sec Im: My father will never rise from his sickbed. That means you’ll never live as a proper lady your whole life. Does your father’s grief trouble you more than that?
EJ: I vowed to serve His Excellency and my mother and live with them all my life. I regret nothing about not living as a lady.

She means that she views this upcoming nuptial as her undying service to her parents. He doesn’t get it, though.

Sec Im: Then, why not refuse outright with that resolve?
EJ: When our property was confiscated, you took in our household, helping us keep our home, didn’t you? I’m grateful to repay that kindness this way.

And that’s how she impresses him with her filial devotion. She’s saying that the marriage is her way of repaying her parents’ debt of gratitude for Sec Im’s financial assistance in their time of need.

As for IJ, he resents being forced to marry the Queen’s niece. He doesn’t think he owes his father any filial devotion. Sec Im thinks he’s ungrateful but what does he expect after the way he treated him?

Five, hatred.

It’s understandable why IJ hates his situation.

His fiancée asks him why he braved the rain to break off their engagement. Meaning, he could have come visit on her on a better day.

IJ: Let’s call it thrashing in desperation.

To me, his words echo what EunJo told him that morning at the market. That time, he had just seen his father and was slapped for trying to beg off from the engagement. When he saw EunJo smiling at marketplace, he became angry. In his mind, she’s come to accept her disastrous marriage without putting up a fight. He tossed her bags of herbs and dragged her away.

IJ: It irritates me. An eolnyeo like you daring to play the sister, caring for your sick father like Sim Cheong and dreaming of some “living happily ever after.” It all gets under my skin.

Note; Sim Cheong is a fictional character in Korean folktales. A filial daughter.

IJ is saying that he finds EunJo annoying because a) she behaves like a saint, an exemplary daughter, and b) she’s constantly cheerful and optimistic. To him, she’s behaving like an ostrich with her head buried in the sand. He wants her to wake up to the grim reality and fight. But of course, he doesn’t know that EunJo is putting on a brave face.

IJ: You’d be better off utterly miserable. Instead of smiling foolishly, you should weep, rage, and wallow in resentment. Because there’s no king in the real world to save a Sim Cheong like you.
EJ: What’s your point? Are you telling me to reject my marriage again? Marriage…no. It’s more accurate to call it a transaction. That transaction, as you said, it’s just the desperate struggle of an eolnyeo trying to survive.

Do you see it? Both of them are in the same leaky boat, sinking into the depths. But while EunJo accepts her fate with equanimity, IJ rails at his fate with aggression.

For now, I’m cutting IJ some slack.