There are some who quibble that the ending isn’t a happily-ever-after, so let me just go over some points.

1. Happiness is fleeting, but contentment is enduring.

I get it. All fairy tales end with, “And they lived happily ever after,” so we’re conditioned to strive for happiness, and to set a yardstick or conditions for happiness. For instance, some viewers think that they’ve been robbed of HEA because:

a) there was no wedding ceremony,
b) we didn’t see the couple having a family life,
c) no babies were filmed cooing in the end,
d) everything is up in the air…or in some distant time and place.

So let me put on my thinking cap and remind us all that happiness is more than the pomp and circumstance of a wedding or a brood of princes and princesses. More often than not, happiness is derived from being content – and grateful – for one’s lot in life.

And that’s what we get in this kdrama.

In Episode 16, EunJo and Yi Yeol are content and grateful because their hearts’ desire to be together has been answered. Their wishes have been fulfilled.

Now, this is EunJo’s wish, as written on the lantern on the night of the Maegwi gut: “If there is another life, I hope I can be with the Grand Prince then.”

But Yi Yeol is dissatisfied with her wish, saying, “I don’t like that wish. Not in another life. Just be with me now. So wake up quickly.”

And since he didn’t make a wish on the night of the Maegyi cut (because he didn’t think he had the right to ask for more when he has all the privileges of being the Grand Prince), he uses his unused wish at her “deathbed.”

This is Yi Yeol’s wish when she’s at her deathbed: “Wake up and stay with me.”

And the god answers his prayer. Surprise! Surprise!

Later, Yi Yeol tells her about his wish when they’re sitting at the lakeshore. He says, “I don’t know about other lives, but right here, I wish to be with you in this life.”

Of course, Yi Yeol’s wish-fulfillment arrives sooner than EunJo’s.

On an unspecified date in the future, Yi Yeol abdicates the throne and returns to his normal life. (Look here: he’ll always be called a Grand Prince — no matter what — because his mother was the Queen Consort. Just like the deposed Yeonsangun has the “gun” attached to his name because he’s a prince.) He’s seen waiting patiently for EunJo in a field of yellow flowers because she told him to just stand still and she’d come running to him.

As promised, EunJo puts on her embroidered flower shoes, and rushes to meet him with all her heart and soul.

Much, much later, in an undetermined lifetime, EunJo’s wish comes true, too. They meet at a museum exhibition on the “Life and Love of the Royal Family,” and he instantly recognizes her. She pauses for a moment, and then, she too remembers him and smiles.

This is a sign that another lifetime of being together begins.

That’s the happily-ever-after (or should I say, contentedly-ever-after?) they wished for themselves. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they won’t ever experience sorrows, pains and unhappiness in life. It just means that whatever happens to them, they’ll be fine because they’re together.

2. True love waits.

This doesn’t need my elaboration. Even way back in 53 AD, when the apostle Paul wrote his famous love epistle to the Corinthians, the first thing he said about it is, “Love is patient.”

EunJo and Yi Yeol know that the other person is worth the wait. As long as they’re together, they can endure anything and wait for their time to come. They don’t regard the deferment of their union as something daunting, unfair, or cruel.

Thus, instead of deploring the lack of wedding ceremony footage, I applaud the characters’ patience as it’s a testament of their love. To them, the reward of being together in the end is too great that it outweighs any inconvenience, delay and sacrifice.

3. Waiting is Yi Yeol’s way of protecting her.

That’s the important context here.

From the beginning of Episode 1, Yi Yeol is shown keenly aware of the dangers of being too close to the throne. He warned the daughter of the corrupt Chief Inspector about it, remember?

YY: Stabbing, killing, blood splattering…there’s no elegance in it. Do you enjoy it?
Daughter: How could a woman possibly enjoy the sight of blood?
YY: Oh dear! To become the Grand Prince’s wife, you must be able to. Struggle and scheming are fundamental skills in the royal family.
Chief Inspector: (trying to change topic)
YY: Why pretend not to know? It only embarrasses us both. (turning back to the daughter) If you were to bear a prince, he would be a threat to the crown prince. One day, he might be found dead by poison, or murdered, made to look like suicide. You probably know this much already… Or perhaps accused of treason.
Chief Inspector: You’re going too far with your words!
YY: (savagely) Even if, through that bloody struggle, I become King and you become Queen, you would soon be deposed.
Daughter: Why is that?
YY: Your family has wealth, but not a political powerhouse, so protecting the Inner Palace wouldn’t be easy. A king cannot simply be a husband. What a king must protect is not his woman, but the throne itself. Your father would know. Since he deposed His Majesty’s mother.

Thus, by waiting to marry Eunjo after he has abdicated the throne and installed his nephew, the Crown Prince, as the king, he spares both EunJo and their future sons from being embroiled in palace politics, and power struggles.

In short, he gets to have his cake and eat it too. He protects the throne aka the royal succession, AND he protects his woman.

That’s the context of his dialogue with EunJo on the bridge.

YY: You heard about the royal wedding?
EJ: I know. This too was my decision. Since I resolved to change tomorrow.
YY: It’s the same for me. That was the beginning of my resolve. Ever since I declared I would ascend the throne. I am now the King of Joseon, and what a king must protect is his people.

Hear the echoes of what he told the corrupt Chief Inspector?

EJ: Hearing that puts me at ease
YY: Then, from now on, listen not as a subject, but as a woman. I will speak not as a king, but as an ordinary man. (putting a ring on her finger) Just wait a little longer. Until the time comes when the one I must protect is my woman only. Until the time comes, when the one I must dream of can finally be you.
EJ: (smiling) Then I will wear them when the time comes.
YY: Wear what?
EJ: Embroidered shoes.
YY: Embroidered shoes?

Lol. Hear again the echoes of that conversation (or poetry as I called it) when he found her at the Hyeminseo?

EJ: The shoes I never dared to wear. My embroidered shoes. (holding his hand) On the day you come to me as an ordinary man, I’ll put them on and run to you. At that time, just stand still. Because I will run to you with all my might.

The best place to live happily-ever-after is outside the royal palace.

4. Love is transformative.

I get it. The new dawn is the obvious theme of both Episodes 15 and 16. In Episode 15, we saw the new day taking place in the whole of the kingdom.

In Episode 16, the new day takes effect in the very nucleus of the kingdom, the family unit. Meaning, in order to fulfil EunJo’s dream of creating a better place/better Joseon, Yi Yeol must transform his own royal family and break the cycle of generational trauma.

When the matter of his royal wedding is brought up by the royal ministers, he stoutly refuses to marry. His reasoning? His marriage may result into a son being born and a new lineage forming. He doesn’t want this to happen as he wants his nephew, the Crown Prince, to grow without this insecurity of being replaceable and dispensable.

Yi Yeol: Though called an abdication, it was akin to a deposition. The Crown Prince became the son of a father who suddenly lost his honor overnight. He must feel precarious and insecure. I will not let that child grow up in confusion. We all witnessed such a child turning into a tyrant and we suffered under him.

Meaning, he won’t let history repeat itself.

His older brother/the deposed king suffered from insecurity since childhood because he wasn’t born of the Dowager Queen (like the Grand Prince), but a concubine who later became a queen, only to be deposed and poisoned.

Yi Yeol wants his nephew, the Crown Prince, to grow without this burden so he can a) learn the ways of being a good ruler and b) be ready to ascend to the throne when the time comes.

Again, he doesn’t want history to repeat itself. When he was young, his older brother (who was a Crown Prince back then), warned him not to show familial familiarity.

Furthermore, he also didn’t want Yi Yeol to:

a) to shine out of insecurity that Yi Yeol’s actions would cast the king in a bad light,

b) to be seen out of fear that Yi Yeol would remind people that he was a better alternative. In fact, Yi Yeol had been known to the ministers as the late king’s preferred heir.

From his personal experience then, Yi Yeol decides to change the future. He tells his nephew to call him uncle.

YY: It’s alright when it’s just us.
CP: Yes, uncle.
YY: (calling him by his first name) Ban. Observe and learn diligently so the world may see your brilliance. You may do that. And, also eat a lot. You need to grow big and strong, so I can pass the throne to you.

(Lol. He doesn’t like the Crown Prince to be a Nepo Baby.)

In taking these seemingly small steps, Yi Yeol is in fact paving a better future for the monarchy, and by logical extension, the kingdom. By transforming his immediate family, he’s transforming his world.

And remember now, the catalyst for all this transformation is his love for EunJo.

5. Hmmm…

This one will have to come tomorrow as I have an important meeting to prep for tomorrow. Good night!

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

So, to those viewers who question the HEA of this kdrama, I already said I have a pretty low bar for a HEA for this kdrama. I only wanted EunJo to be alive. Lol.

Kidding aside, I do recognize when a kdrama exceeds my expectations of a HEA. This one did. And the screenwriter, director, actors and everyone involved in the production deserve kudos.