If there’s one theme that runs through this episode, it’s the confession. The characters are confessing one after the other.

1. First, there’s EunJo’s love confession to the sleeping Yi Yeol.

I already discussed this at length in the previous post but I’ll copy the confession itself.

EJ: Do you know what I was thinking as I ran to find you? Oh! You must have run like this, too, desperately. You must run to me praying only that I survived. That thought only occurs to me now. Do you remember? The day my wedding made the whole family upset? You said you followed me to comfort me if I cried. The truth is, I saw everything. I secretly swallowed my laughter. I suppose I was waiting for you. That’s when I realized. I can endure this now. So this is what they mean when they say even the coldest winter feels warm if you have someone by your side. I’ve rambled on for a while. In short, wake up quickly. (holding his hand) You can’t sleep too long. I’ve forgotten how to endure winter alone.

2. Then, there’s the crime confession.

I’m not going over this because I don’t care.

3. Then, Consort Suk Ui is trying to force a confession from EunJo.

This is noteworthy.

EJ: Thanks to you mobilizing the scholars, Consort Suk Ui.
SU: The Grand Prince came looking for me after learning who I was, and said he would first eliminate the Im family and discuss the rest when the time comes.

This is a good move by Yi Yeol. He’s keeping his cards close to his chest because he isn’t totally sold on Consort Suk Ui and their movement.

EJ: I know.
SU: I’ve accepted the proposal, but I’m concerned. If something goes wrong while he’s acting before fully recovering, we won’t even be able to start the rebellion.
EJ: We know that, too.
SU: Are the two of you deeply in love?

EJ: (not answering)
SU: I need to figure it out. Whether this love will be useful or become an obstacle.

My comments:

1. Remember what I said about Yi Yeol distrusting the rebels? He doesn’t like the fact that the Consort Suk Ui is willing to sacrifice EunJo/GilDong for the cause. From my perspective, she isn’t different from Sec Im. They both use people as pawns to achieve their mission. Granted, Sec Im is debased while Consort Suk Ui presents herself as humanitarian. But if and when she treats people as means to her end, then she isn’t any better than Sec Im.

2. A useful love is a love that Consort Suk Ui can manipulate for their mission; she’ll obviously support and encourage this sort of love. A love that Consort Suk Uk deems an obstacle is one she can’t control because the lovers have a will and a mind of their own. This kind of love must be terminated.

EJ: (pausing before answering) Until the world changes, there is only Gil Dong.

Very, very interesting. I can’t tell right now (Maybe I should have watched Ep 14 before writing this?) whether EunJo really believes this or she’s merely saying this because Consort Suk Ui is pressuring her to confess her true feelings for Yi Yeol.

But, as it stands, her reply, “Until the world changes, there’s only Gil Dong” means that:

a) the mission comes before love,
b) she chooses duty to personal happiness, and
c) she will sacrifice her life/love/future for the moral necessity of removing the despotic king from power.

Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!  Obviously, Yi Yeol wouldn’t be happy to hear this.

SU: Please stay by his side as Gil Dong. You’re the only one who can look after the Grand Prince now.

This means that if the Consort Suk Ui has found a replacement for Gil Dong, then she’s expendable.

EJ: I’m already doing that.

Then, in the next scene, we see EunJo standing in front of the palace with medicinal herbs for Yi Yeol. She also invites him to eat chicken soup with him. She tells him casually that she’s promised someone to take good care of him.

I hope she doesn’t really mean that.

4. Next up is both a pre-confession and a half-confession.

JY: Why are you here?
EJ: The Grand Prince has something to tell you.
JY: He could have come himself.
EJ: I insisted on coming. I had, too.
JY: Say it already and leave. If our Lord finds out, it won’t end well for you.
EJ: The Grand Prince said he would accept any resentment. Sincerely.

That’s the pre-confession. Yi Yeol is confessing that what he’s about to do will hurt JaeYi but he’s taking full responsibility for it.

JY: Resentment? Did something happen outside?
EJ: You’ll find out soon. I hope it won’t hurt you too much. I truly mean that.

And that’s the half-confession. She isn’t fully disclosing what they’re about to do, but she’s already apologizing for the harm it will cause him.

Note: both Yi Yeol and EunJo aren’t asking for forgiveness. They’re just giving JaeYi heads-up. Yi Yeol is ready to bear the brunt of his retaliation while EunJo expresses compassion for his oncoming ordeal.

Then, she leaves.

5. The Queen Dowager wants Yi Yeol to confess everything to her.

QD: (asking the doctor) How is it?
Doctor: His recovery is remarkably fast. Truly, heaven’s fortune has favored the Grand Prince.

This is an understatement.

YY: Indeed.
Doctor: Of course, the excellent initial treatment also played its part.
YY: Oh, that was fate intervening. I met a renowned physician.

He’s confessing that his meeting with EunJo is fated. Of course, his mother thinks he’s joking.

The Queen Dowager orders everybody out.

QD: What have you been doing outside? Why is the Im family trying to kill you?
YY: Mother.
QD: A mother senses her son’s danger first. Confess now!

See that? Everybody is confessing in this episode!

YY: Someday, I will tell you everything.
QD: Can I trust you?
YY: (nodding) Do not worry. I won’t do anything reckless.

6. There’s the father-and-son confession between Lord Im and JaeYi.

This is painful to watch.

JaeYi is tending to the small funeral pyre for SeungJae when his father arrives. Sec Im has SeungJae’s court robe in his hands.

Im: The body was secretly buried facing the family burial grounds. (tossing the garment and hat in the fire) If I had made them pretend to be bandits to save SeungJae, I would have been charged with the same crime. It would have annihilated the entire family.

He’s confessing that he staged SeungJae’s death.

Im: He wore only the finest clothes and was raised on the best of everything. Even if he had followed the bandits and lived in hiding, he wouldn’t have endured their filth and baseness for even half a month before dying. It would be a meaningless death. I know being beheaded is a disgrace, but he didn’t have the courage to bite his tongue and take his own life. Therefore…

Ahhh, he’s rationalizing killing his own son. SeungJae couldn’t kill himself, so he had to do it. He was doing SeungJae a favor by killing him because he couldn’t survive living with the bandits and beheading meant an incomplete body in the afterlife.

JaeYi doesn’t fall for it, though.

JY: (holding back his rage) Is that what you believe? No. You found it unbearable to imagine your son returning afer less than a fortnight, begging to be spared. You simply discarded a useless pawn.

There! JaeYi knows his confession is false.

However, I don’t think JaeYi knows that the real reason Sec Im killed his oldest son is because he couldn’t risk SeungJae spilling the beans that a) he masterminded the assassination attempt on the Grand Prince, and b) he’s poisoning the King with the incense delivered from China.

Im: Turns out it is not SeungJae but you who resembles me so much.
JY: How heartbreaking that must be. Since I’m the only one left.
Im: If you intend to defy my command, discard the name I gave you.
JY: I will take everything. If I abandon that name now, wouldn’t all my struggle become pointless?

Sec Im’s face brightens up. He believes JaeYi is standing by him but I don’t think so….

Im: (hugging JaeYi) This is my command. Become my sword and strike down the Grand Prince Do Wol.
JY: (clenching his hand)

JaeYi’s body language isn’t hard to read. To me, his clenched fist means that this new father-and-son alliance isn’t something he supports. He clenches his hand because he’s holding himself back from lashing out. Though his father is hugging him, he keeps his emotions in check so he won’t reveal how much he hates this fake physical contact and this fake emotional bonding.

7. JaeYi sneaks into the medicine room of Hyeminseo to confess to EunJo.

EJ: How did you?
JY: I climbed over the wall and opened the door.
EJ: Have you been drinking?
JY: Yes, quite a lot. So much so that when I wake tomorrow, I won’t remember this.
EJ: Stay here. I’ll get you some water.
I think she’s worried that he might do a drunken confession (a love confession) so she excuses herself. But she isn’t wrong. Though he doesn’t explicitly say “I love you,” love is the undertone.

Watching her back disappear, he begins his confession.

JY: If I become his sword and strike down the Grand Prince, you’ll be hurt, too, won’t you? Still, don’t let it hurt too much.

He’s actually echoing what she told him when she paid him a visit in jail. She didn’t want him to hurt too badly, too. She meant that sincerely.

JY: I do, too.

Meaning, he means it sincerely, too.

To me, JaeYi is experiencing some sort of EunJo-imprinting. You know how a young animal begins to bond and follow the first moving object it sees because it thinks it’s the mother? Well, JaeYi’s first encounter with familial bonds and protectiveness is with EunJo so he’s modeling his behavior from her and her social interactions.

Like, when she wanted SeungJae to apologize to the residents of Guljimak for being a beast, he, too, apologizes to them without any prompting from her. And when she slapped him to bring him to his sense, he also slaps her to snap her out of her hysteria. And because she privately wished him well before his brother is sentenced to beheading, he drops in on her, too, to wish her well before he attacks Yi Yeol.

When EunJo comes out with the water she promised him, he’s gone.

And the sweet thing here – in case you didn’t notice it – is that he left her a lighted candle. EunJo had been lighting a candle in the dark room when he snuck in. So he lit another one for her to illuminate the room.

And I think it’s symbolic, too. He doesn’t want her days ahead too bleak after he takes down Yi Yeol, hurting her in the process.

8. Last but not least, there’s EunJo’s confession in the end.

Yi Yeol is close to beating up JaeYi when she bursts into the room.

YY: Do you know what you’ve done? GilDong. To me, who is trying with all my might to protect that person…
JY: (unyielding) As you are royalty, if you turn yourself in, it will end with exile.
EJ: (entering the room)
JY: Why are you here?
EJ: (tossing the GilDong mask on the table) Arrest me. I am Gil Dong.

This confession forces JaeYi to choose a side.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

There’s a ninth confession (can you guess it?) but I’m still mulling it over.