Like the body swap trope, the lantern trope is a narrative device common in kdramas (but I don’t see anyone complaining about it. Hmph!).

After the main characters deliberate on the wishes to handwrite on the paper lanterns, they light the candles and release the lanterns to float in the water or up into the sky. The trope is generally meant to show the characters bonding in a quiet moment and hoping to deepen their connection in the future.

In this scene, however, the lantern moment is merely an intermission before the Grand Prince Do Wol aka Yi Yeol disappears from EunJo’s sight. There’s no hoping – from his end, at least – of deepening their connection in the future.

That’s the reason he drops by the Gujilmak. He wants to tell her about his departure.

EJ: What brings you here?
YY: I want to talk to you, but you weren’t at Hyeminseo. Then it’s obvious you are here.

He waits to tell her on their evening walk back to her home. Note: their strolls remind me of a Victorian dating ritual. Back in those days, going on walks is how a couple who have taken a fancy to each other, get to know more about each other. Of course, no physical contact is permitted during the stroll. But conversation creates a more satisfying emotional and mental contact.  That’s why I’m enjoying the strolls EunJo and Yi Yeol have been taking together in this drama.

EJ: The weather has been lovely lately.
YY: Indeed. I’ll remember it for a long time. This time of the year.

He’s hinting at his impending travel plan. But EunJo is too slow on the uptake…or maybe she’s just hedging because she doesn’t want him to bring up his marriage proposal especially after she’s lost his proposal letter?

EJ: Weeeelll…what did you want to talk about?
YY: Ah! Forget about Im JaeYi.

I don’t think he’s evading her question. I think he simply wants to tie loose ends before he leaves, and he suddenly remembers about their problem with JaeYi. He’s wrapping things up so she won’t fret about her secret identity being discovered by JaeYi when he’s gone. So thoughtful of him!

YY: All evidence regarding Gil Dong has been destroyed so he can’t pursue it anymore. Not now. Not ever.
EJ: (silent)
YY: This isn’t about you, It’s about me. If you get caught, what will happen to me, your partner-in-crime?

Here, he doesn’t want her to feel obliged to him, so he pretends that he did it purely for selfish reasons. In reality, he did it for her. She smiles then chases after him.

EJ: I usually avoid boasting. My archery skills. I learned them from His Excellency, who was Minister of War.
YY: (feigning ignorance) He must have been quite special to you.
EJ: Yes. When I was young, every year, His Excellency would take me to the market. That day always felt like a little excursion. When I grew up, I realized that the day we went every year was the day before His Excellency left for the battlefield. Had he died at the battlefield, that day that felt like a little excursion would have been my last day with His Excellency. He hoped that memory wouldn’t be sad. That’s the kind of person he is.

The ironic thing about this conversation is that EunJoo has no idea that Yi Yeol will imitate her father and do exactly the same thing for her. That very night, he too will give her a happy memory at the marketplace and she’ll keep this memory of him long after he’s gone. He’s giving her what I call the “illusion of innocence” because that’s the kind of person he is.

EJ: (chattering still) He said I learned archery to protect my family if we were left alone.

And there’s a bit of irony here. Her archery didn’t protect her family. In fact, it endangered her family because, in a fit of rage, she shot an arrow at the King.

YY: You’re doing well protecting even your neighbors. Even if I weren’t in Joseon—
EJ: Oh! What??

This time, EunJo interrupts him before he can broach the topic of his departure. She goes to a stall selling lanterns and waves at Yi Yeol to join her. Of course, the visuals aren’t lost to us viewers. This mirrors young EunJo rushing to the vendor of the malt candy, and her father joining her.

YY: What are you doing?
EJ: I almost missed it. It’s the Maegwi gut today.

Thanks to the diligent Viki subbers, we know that Maegwi gut is a traditional ritual meant to drive away evil spirits and pray for good fortune. It’s interesting that EunJo is familiar with these rituals and folklore (remember? Her belief about the rain washing away her sorrows?) while Yi Yeol isn’t. I’m assuming that it had something to do with the Joseon monarchy outlawing shamanism and suppressing Buddhism and enforcing Neo-Confucianism as state ideology.

EJ: We should make wishes. Two, please.
Vendor: I’m so sorry. There’s only one left.
YY: It’s fine. I don’t make wishes.
Vendor: Still. You should try making one. They say god is always with us. Closer than expected.
YY: Looks like they’ve unexpectedly gone deaf.

And I get where his bitterness comes from. He only has one wish and that’s to marry EunJo. But he knows his wish is futile as her father threatened to kill himself.

EJ: (elbowing him) I’ll speak clearly and loudly. I’ll take the remaining lantern.
Vendor: You must wish for only one thing. So the deaf god can hear. (smiling)

Then, as the vendor walks off, he observes that the moonlight is truly beautiful that night. And his shadow on the ground shows a man walking without a bulky peddler’s box on his back and wearing a yangban’s gat instead of a peddler’s distinctive paeraengi.

Note on the paeranegi: there are two cotton balls on the peddler’s hat because a peddler once saved the life of a future-king-to-be by wrapping his battle wound with cotton. I guess the cotton balls are like badges of honor to recognize the heroic service of a peddler to the monarchy. I guess, in this sense, another peddler makes his appearance before a future-king-to-be by offering him a lantern. I wouldn’t be surprised if this peddler is the same person/god who rescued the young Grand Prince from drowning when he was young.

Meanwhile, EunJo and Yi Yeol decorate their shared lantern.

YY: Why are you agonizing so much?
EJ: Because he told me to write only one. I don’t know what to write.
YY: How many wishes do you have? (teasingly) I guess you have some hidden greed.
EJ: (protesting) No. It’s not greed. It’s my first time making a wish.

Not true. Did she forget the kiss she stole from him? She made an unspoken wish back then, too. If she was no longer allowed to live as a lady, if that night should be her last, then she wished – no, she WANTED – to fall in love and feel a man’s kiss for the very first and last time.

YY: What is it then? It’s almost time to release the lanterns. Just give me a general idea.
EJ: (hesitating) Actually, this feels like it’s really my greed.
YY: (not answering)
EJ: It’s enough now, so I planned to just keep it to myself.

I think she means that everything/everybody around her seems to be doing fine at the moment, so she’s planning to make a wish for herself.

EJ: But I wonder if what I desire is right.
YY: Are you talking about meddling?
EJ: No.
YY: Right. If you’re writing to meddle more, put down the brush.
EJ: It’s my wish. Stop meddling. Stop peeking!
YY: I won’t.

Once they release the lantern, she clasps her hands in prayer.

I think it’s cute that he immediately looks away when she glances up at him. He doesn’t want her to catch him staring at her. Lol.

YY: You’re really desperate, huh? Confess now. It’ll be faster if I make that wish come true myself.

He isn’t bragging here. He has “paved” her path in more ways than one and she’s been accepting his generosity all this time.

EJ: (astonished) What?! You saw my wish, didn’t you?

At the very least, her reaction tells us that she wished for something that he had in his power to execute, implement, and fulfil. Did she wish that she’d recover his letter of marriage proposal?

YY: I didn’t. (suspicious) What’s this? Can I really make it come true?
EJ: It’s not that. It’s completely unrelated.
YY: But it is, right? What is it? Is there another corrupt official?
EJ: No.

He refers to that incident she, as Gil Dong, asked him to deal with (or “meddle”) the Chief Inspector’s corruption and seek justice for the poor folks. He refused at first but changed his mind after reading her note which earnestly pleaded with him to do something that she, a humble thief, had no power to. See that? Technically, she made a wish back then, and he made it come true for her.

YY: Is someone else sick?
EJ: I said no.

He refers to that incident when he, as Grand Prince, donated boxloads of medicinal herbs to the Hyeminseo because she unknowingly divulged that she couldn’t be generous in wrapping his wound with herbs as herbs are in scarce supply. Though she didn’t say out loud that she wished to have more herbs, he heard her and made her wish come true.

YY: Are they starving?
EJ: It’s not that!

Same here. He refers to the rice that he gave to the people of Gujilmak. He saw the children were eating the bark from the tree, and knew that he had to do something for them. He remembered back then – and took to heart – what she had once told the widow: that medicines don’t work when the heart is deeply wounded, and that the heart hurts more than anything when a person is hungry and suffering. Hence, she wishes that everybody is comforted with warm food. And he heeds her wish.

Before Yi Yeol can say more, she storms off in a huff.

Hence, I like how this lantern trope is used in the plot. It isn’t just a “Oh gosh! What breath-taking cinematography!” moment. It also isn’t just a plot contrivance, i.e., a scene jammed into the plot to check off the trope box.

For me, the lantern scene connects EunJo’s past life and happy memories of her father with her future life and her soon-to-be-memories of Yi Yeol. You see, her close and adoring relationship with her father is the primary reason Yi Yeol must break off his relationship with her and run far away. If her father hadn’t vehemently opposed his proposal of marriage to the point of threatening to kill himself then there was no reason for Yi Yeol to leave her. He would have stuck around and pursued her.

This lantern moment then is just a brief interlude before Yi Yeol too flies off and disappears in the night. And as I mentioned earlier, it parallels EunJo’s memories of a market day excursion before her father went off to battle. The significance of the lantern ritual will only dawn on her after his departure.

Moreover, although Yi Yeol is teasing her about being her wish-giver or genie of sorts, it’s clear that she has been the recipient of his generosity. Let me list the ways.

In Episode 1, there was the pair of braided rattan shoes he gave her, so she didn’t have to muddy her precious silk shoes.

In Episode 2, it was revealed that he had bought her a pair of shoes which he forgot to give her after she surprised him with a stolen kiss.

In Episode 3, there were lots of gift-giving.

One, the herbs brought to Hyeminseo were courtesy of the Grand Prince. He didn’t want it to be revealed that he was the Grand Prince Do Wol so pretended to be a royal investigator following up on the delivery.

Two, the arrest and imprisonment of the corrupt Chief Inspector was also his gift to EunJo. EunJo expressed profuse thanks for his assistance in settling the matter. He realized then that he wanted to personally look after her and take care of her “poverty, misery, wretchedness, tears.”

But for me, the most sentimental gift was the tie he ripped off from his coat to bandage EunJoo’s wound on her hand.

In Episode 4, she discovered the pair of silk shoes he left for her on her wedding day. She stored them in a cabinet, opting to wear braided shoes to enter the Im household. I guess, that was symbolic as she was resigned to being like a slave in her marital home.

In Episode 5, during the body swap, Yi Yeol gave her the dignity and respect that her position deserved as widow of the elderly Im patriarch.

In Episode 6, EunJo learned that, on her wedding day, Yi Yeol paved the road to the Im residence so her palanquin wouldn’t slip in the mud.

In Episode 7, there were three gifts if I recall correctly.

The obvious one was the return of EunJo’s father. Yi Yeol had written to him, urging him to return. Then, upon arrival, EunJo’s father learned of the true state of EunJo’s marriage and swiftly dissolved it. EunJo’s return to single status was Yi Yeol’s gift to her.

The other gift was monetary. He tasked a relative of EunJo’s father to lie about the profitable sale of some property in the countryside. The windfall profit was then used to pay off EunJo’s father’s loan from Secretary Im, which then freed EunJo from being held “hostage” by the Im family.

The third gift was his letter of proposal. He was proposing marriage to her.

In Episode 8, he sent the residents of Gujilmak with a year’s worth of rice.

In Episode 9, his primary gift to her was his departure. As much as it pained him to leave, he was honoring their deep father-daughter bond and sparing her from choosing him over her father.

And his secondary gift was this “illusion of innocence” as I said earlier. He didn’t want to burden her with a teary farewell so he kept the conversation between them light and cheerful.

Did I miss anything else?

All these were his gifts to his beloved thief, as the title says.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Next up, the arrows.