Six Flying Dragons: Episode 26

by HeadsNo2

Someone just seeing this drama through these images might think that the entire thing takes place in the dead of night, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But I suppose daylight wouldn’t be to your advantage when you’re all about secrets and subterfuge, though it would be nice to see these characters get some vitamin D once in a while. (I still love you even if you’re a vampire, Dragons.)

Darkness aside though, this is a great hour of moves and countermoves, some much more devastating and potentially mind-blowing than others. That’s all I can say without giving it away—I know, I know, dramas are a cruel mistress.

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Sunmi – “24시간이 모자라 (24 Hours)” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 26 RECAP

After a refresher course on the history of the Red Seal as it applies to our dragons’ lives (mostly through Boon-yi and Bang-ji’s mysterious mother, Yeon-hyang), we return to Biguk Temple, where Gil Sun-mi and Jukryong try to process what the Red Seal Grandma has told them.

Since their master plans to support neither Lee Seong-gye or General Jo, he’s sent an assassin named Pyung to Dohwa Manor. Likely, Pyung’s job will be to kill the victor of the battle already taking place there, so as to make it seem like Lee and Jo killed each other. Which would leave a huge power gap just waiting to be filled…

As General Jo is escorted in ropes out of the manor, one of the supposedly dead assassins jumps up with a dagger in his hand, ready to kill Lee Seong-gye. Bang-won acts swiftly and shoots him in the back with an arrow, though after a murmured “I’ve failed,” the assassin slits his own throat. Was that Pyung?

Since justice is swift in Goryeo, we next find General Jo strapped to a torture chair all bloody and bruised. Officer Nam and Bang-gwa act as his interrogators, though he puts up no fight and admits to everything proudly. He tried to kill Lee Seong-gye because he knew if he didn’t, Lee would kill him.

He’d do it all over again, he adds, but there is one question still burning in his mind: Why did his plan fail? How did a fight break out in the courtyard that ruined all his plans?

Moo-hyul thinks he’s in trouble when Bang-won and Jung Do-jeon ask him why he started the courtyard fight, at least until Jung tells him that were it not for him flipping the table over, everyone could’ve died before Lee Seong-gye’s army arrived. They all have him to thank for saving their lives, however wounded some of them may be.

But when Moo-hyul still hesitates to say, Bang-ji steps in to save him by telling half of the truth, claiming that Moo-hyul recognized one of General Jo’s servants who cruelly stole land from Bang-ji and Boon-yi’s hometown at the banquet.

He leaves out the more intimate details, which Moo-hyul is grateful for. And it’s enough of an answer for Jung Do-jeon and Bang-won, who congratulate Moo-hyul for his bravery. Moo-hyul gives them a smile, but sends a concerned look Bang-ji’s way. D’aww.

Outside, Gab-boon tries to ease Boon-yi’s concern for her brother, noting cheerily that Bang-ji’s sustained plenty of wounds in the past and has recovered quickly from them all.

Boon-yi thinks Gab-boon’s dedication to her brother is cute and thanks her for it, though Gab-boon is quick to say that it wasn’t she who stayed by Bang-ji’s side, but Bang-ji who stayed by hers.

Inside, Bang-ji asks Moo-hyul how he knew about Yeon-hee, and it doesn’t take any pressure at all for Moo-hyul to crack and admit he overheard her talking about it the night Bang-ji got drunk. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on purpose!” he frets, before telling him the rest of what she said.

He thinks Bang-ji’s going to scold him, but he says instead, “From what I saw last night, you’re stronger when you’re protecting someone.” It’s adorable how Moo-hyul lights up like a firecracker at the compliment, all, “Really? Right? I’m like that, aren’t I?” Yes, yes you are.

When Boon-yi brings Bang-ji food (along with a chestnut added by Gab-boon), he tells her the story of the night he tried to kill the other man who was with Yeon-hee’s rapist, and how he couldn’t bring himself to do it when the man told his crying mother to take his daughter inside.

“I was in a daze. That evil man was also just a human trying to survive in these turbulent times. I couldn’t kill him,” he adds. In the end, he explains, he found a weird sort of sympathy for the man, who he saw as being part of the underprivileged like them. Weak, like them.

“Weak people like him are the worst,” Boon-yi interjects, not buying his line of argument. “They’re weak men who seek to crush those weaker than them.” She sniffs back her tears before bringing herself back to reality, if only to tell Bang-ji that he did well.

Yeon-hee hovers outside with a package of medicine for Bang-ji, but as soon as she sees Boon-yi emerge, she asks her to give it to him. But Boon-yi pulls her into a hug to say, “Unni, you did well.” For killing that bastard who killed so many of their villagers and stole their land, Boon-yi earnestly thanks her.

You can see Yeon-hee coming to peace with all that’s happened as she warms to Boon-yi’s hug, and even puts a hand on her back as they share in that moment. Which puts Boon-yi in the perfect spot to ask Yeon-hee for a favor: “I’d like for you to give him this medicine personally.” Hah, well she can’t very well refuse now.

Yeon-hee finds Bang-ji lying down, and urges him to stay that way as she takes a seat by his bed. “I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve slept as soundly as I did last night,” she ventures, which likely brings Bang-ji more relief than that medicine ever could.

“So you should get some sleep too,” she adds. “I’ll watch over you until you fall asleep.” I bet Bang-ji’s gonna sleep like he hasn’t in a long, long time too.

Everyone’s recovering from their wounds, but no one’s as vocal about it as Young-kyu, who groans that he’s surely dying from all the pain. Ji-ran tells him to shut up and man up already, even though he himself can’t get up from his sick bed just yet.

It’s a testament to Ji-ran’s mettle and unwavering loyalty that he actually apologizes to Lee Seong-gye for not doing enough to fight off fifty men at once, so deep is his love for his sworn brother.

But of greater importance is the assassin who killed himself in front of them, because it may signify that there was someone else besides General Jo who wanted to kill Lee Seong-gye.

While Bang-won goes to investigate, Jung Do-jeon and Lee Seong-gye talk about their options, since they’d like to keep the public from knowing about the open war between him and General Jo. Jung Do-jeon thinks the answer lies with Jung Mong-joo, and advises that Lee Seong-gye make a request to him. Of what, we don’t know.

When General Jo finds out that his plan failed because Bang-ji had a personal vendetta against one of his servants, he can’t get over the shock. “So all this happened out of sheer coincidence?” he asks unbelievingly.

But Bang-won, there with elder brother Bang-gwa, says it shouldn’t come as such a surprise that out of the endless number of people he’s made to suffer, one of them would be at that banquet. As for the unknown assassin, General Jo doesn’t have any more information than they do.

Jung Mong-joo’s advice for how to deal with General Jo is to not execute him for staging a coup, which would only cause more public unease. Jung Do-jeon agrees with him on not making enemies out of everyone, so he pleads with him to help turn Lee Saek over to their cause.

To sweeten the deal, they’d support Lee Saek to become the next minister of state affairs, but it all depends on whether Jung Mong-joo can persuade him. If he can’t, Jung Do-jeon only asks that he at least arrange a meeting between them so they can talk their views out.

Jung Mong-joo takes this information to Lee Saek, and though Minister Woo is firmly against the idea of joining hands with Lee Seong-gye, Jung’s powers of persuasion work. Lee Saek agrees to negotiate with Lee Seong-gye, with Jung organizing the meeting himself.

It all comes down to land and where Jung Do-jeon’s team will draw the line, which seems to be at 500 gyeol rather than 1,000 now. It’s a harder deal than it was before, which has people like Officer Nam nervous about the outcome.

What’s certain is that Lee Saek will make demands at tomorrow’s meeting, and if he makes the demands Jung Do-jeon predicts, they’ll actually come out on top. But of course, Jung has proven that he’s not always the best when it comes to reading people.

Bang-won reports his findings to Jung Do-jeon, which is only that General Jo wasn’t behind the secret assassin at the banquet. It concerns Jung that they have an enemy they don’t know, so he tasks Bang-won with finding out who it is at any cost.

It then becomes clear that Bang-won’s not happy about his father going to the negotiating table with Lee Saek, since he believes that General Jo’s mutiny provides them a perfect opportunity to retaliate with force and thus get everything they want the easy way.

Jung Do-jeon agrees that they would be able to achieve their goals with force, but that his plan for revolution was based off his Confucian ideals of saving lives, not ending them. More importantly though, this negotiation has a greater meaning to him, in that it’s the only way he can think of to keep Jung Mong-joo on board: “He is the one who will justify our revolution.”

Jung Mong-joo also moderates the meeting, where Lee Saek wastes no time in presenting his demand to bring the deposed King Woo back to the capital. Jung Do-jeon acquiesces to this almost too easily before presenting his demand: immediate enforcement of Jo Joon’s land reform plan in its original, unaltered state. Lee Saek asks for a recess to discuss this with his side, but he’s of the mind to agree to it. They can always repeal it once King Woo is back on the throne.

Luckily, this is exactly how Jung Do-jeon predicted it would go down, though of course they can’t actually allow King Woo to retake the throne. He’s also not surprised when Lee Saek comes back and agrees to their conditions, on the condition that the measurements for the reform be done in an official governmental capacity.

In that way, they’re throwing out Jo Joon’s five years of research while attempting to stall on the reform, since it’d take at least five years for new measurements to be taken. Jung Do-jeon amicably agrees to this, but it means that they’ll only agree to let King Woo come as close as Yeoju and not the capital. At least until the land reform is fully passed.

Likewise, General Jo will be prosecuted for illegal land dealings instead of inciting a massacre, and everyone wins! Kind of. Lee Saek’s side thinks they’ve come out with the better deal, but he knows something was up with Jung Do-jeon’s easygoing smile.

And he’s right, since Jung Do-jeon has alternate plans of his own. Lee Saek’s side thinks they’ve bought themselves five years, but Jung has no intention of letting it go that long. If they use Jo Joon’s plan, the land reform can be finished in two.

He relays this plan to Jung Mong-joo, but it arouses suspicion in his favorite colleague that he’s in such a rush. Is he really in this for land reform or does he want to get rid of the noble elite? It’s likely that Ha Ryun’s words have taken root in his mind, though he seems content still to believe Jung Do-jeon rather than the rumors floating around.

Bang-won takes Boon-yi and Moo-hyul with him to get a look at the mysterious assassin’s face before he’s taken of to be cremated. They recognize him as the man who stole Jo Joon’s research before they got to it, which raises Bang-won’s suspicion that Ha Ryun could’ve sent the assassin to kill his father.

But when “monks” come to take the body, Boon-yi notices something off-putting about them: they’re wearing leather shoes, which are forbidden for monks. That and the fact that the men looked too young sends the trio out to follow them for answers.

Red Seal Grandma explains to Jukryong and Gil Sun-mi that while their master had planned to kill the victor of the Battle of Dohwa Manor, Lee Seong-gye had heaven’s luck on his side. She has no patience for them asking if that means their master will choose Lee Seong-gye after all, and says in her slooow manner, “Why are you trying to decipher his plans?”

It’s cute that Boon-yi says she noticed the non-monks’ shoes because she has a sensitivity to shoes, calling back the time Bang-won bought her a pair. They follow the monks into a forest, where Ha Ryun appears to take a look at the body himself.

At first, this seems to confirm Bang-won’s suspicion that Ha Ryun tried to kill his father, but when Ha Ryun seems surprised to see the man’s face, all that changes. He still confronts Ha Ryun over whether he did plot to kill Lee Seong-gye, and uses Moo-hyul to make quick work of the two bodyguard-monks.

While Red Seal Grandma gives Jukryong and Gil Sun-mi three letters to deliver, Ha Ryun protests his innocence to Bang-won. He provides a likeness of the dead man and explains that he’s been looking for him on Lee In-gyeom’s behalf for over a decade.

He also tells them about the mysterious organization that helped Lee In-gyeom during critical moments, and how he’s sure this man has the telltale symbol of the organization to prove it. Bang-won rolls up the man’s sleeve and finds the Red Seal tattooed on his arm (except in black).

Bang-won recognizes the seal from his younger days, but he’d always thought the spy with the seal had been sent by Lee In-gyeom. Ha Ryun tells him that’s not so, which is why he’s spent all this time investigating on his behalf.

Of course, Boon-yi also recognizes the symbol, having believed as a child that the organization behind it had kidnapped her mother. She’s not as keen to give this information to Jung Do-jeon though, likely because of the warning she received about associating herself with her infamous mother.

So Bang-won takes it to Jung Do-jeon instead, telling him that the tattoo was found on his father’s would-be assassin. But Bang-ji’s face darkens when he sees the symbol, prompting him to unsheathe his sword in front of everyone gathered—and there, on the base of the blade, is the same symbol.

“Who are you?” Bang-won asks, eyes wide. “Why is that on your sword?” Bang-ji explains that his mother was kidnapped by a mysterious organization, but he’d known they operated with that seal. So he carved it into his sword so he’d never forget it.

As for Gil Sun-mi’s involvement with it, Bang-ji knows little more than they do. But when he shares that Gil Sun-mi told him to stop looking for his mother since she killed Princess Noguk, it sparks something in Jung Do-jeon.

“‘Nameless,’” he calls the organization in a grave tone. “I didn’t believe it for a long time,” he adds, going on to say how King Gongmin was so convinced Princess Noguk’s death wasn’t an accident that he claimed an organization called “Moomyung,” (or “Nameless”) was behind it.

The king had ordered an investigation into all the palace maids as a result, which supposedly caused Yeon-hyang to commit suicide. “If your mother is really Yeon-hyang,” he says to Bang-ji, “then she didn’t actually kill herself back then, but escaped out of the palace.” The question remains, why is Nameless targeting them?

Since Jung Do-jeon sends all his young dragons out to find everything they can on Nameless, Yeon-hee goes to Cho-young first to see what she knows. Cho-young’s expression says it all when Yeon-hee shows her the symbol, yet she claims she’s never seen it before. For being a professional spy, she sure could use a better poker face.

The three Red Seal/Nameless letters are delivered to Boon-yi, Bang-won, and Jung Do-jeon, all claiming to be from Jo Joon and of an urgent nature. But Jung Do-jeon finds something off about the letter instantly, since Jo Joon always refers to the New Joseon Cave in code, but didn’t here.

Bang-won doesn’t know it’s a trap and rushes over, unaware that he’s being followed. Jung Do-jeon finds Jo Joon first, and together they realize that whoever forged this letter must’ve forged more than one in the hopes of following at least one of its recipients to the cave.

Boon-yi’s the first to arrive, with Bang-won and Moo-hyul close behind. It’s then that Bang-won realizes it’s a trap, and Jung Do-jeon’s arrival confirms it. The information is still safely stored inside, but they don’t know who could’ve followed them here to try and take it.

That’s when the outer door opens, and footsteps can be heard in the darkness. Moo-hyul draws his sword as they all turn toward the sight of the inner door creaking open…

Cut to Gil Sun-mi and Jukryong, as the latter tells the former that they’ve discovered the location of the cave, and thus Jo Joon’s research. Gil Sun-mi says it’s about more than that now though. “It’s a counterattack. A most fatal counterattack. And the person most fatal [to their plans] will travel there.” All this according to His wish.

Back in the cave, everyone waits with bated breath as a figure emerges from the shadows, and it’s…

…Jung Mong-joo?! He looks just as surprised to see them as they are to see them, explaining that a strange letter brought him here. But Jung Do-jeon knows how badly this will end for them the second Jung Mong-joo turns his attention to the large map on the wall.

“New Joseon?” he reads in disbelief. Then, turning to Jung Do-jeon, he asks, “What is this?”

 
COMMENTS

Yeah, just what is this? I feel some small measure of comfort from the fact that this isn’t the Big Reveal I thought it’d be when it came to the man behind Nameless, since I realized only after seeing Jung Mong-joo walk through that door that I would’ve been terribly disappointed if it turned out to be him. Not for any reason I can actually put my finger on, but just… it wouldn’t have worked.

Luckily though, he’s not the one running the show over at Nameless, and by all accounts seems to have been just another pawn used in their game. If so, it was a damn fine move on their part, and one that speaks volumes about the true breadth of this most mysterious organization. For one, it’d mean that whoever’s behind it must have a deep understanding of Jung Do-jeon, enough to prey on his worst fears and, ultimately, exploit them.

It’d also mean that the mind behind Nameless had to have known about Jung Do-jeon’s ultimate plan, enough to know that it would be a “fatal” blow indeed to have Jung Mong-joo find out the way he did. He might not have known the exact location of the cave, which is why he needed one of the dragons to lead his people there, but he must’ve already known what was inside. It’s all so eerie when you think about it, especially considering how Jung Do-jeon only had ONE great concern holding his plan back. And now, his chances to convince the stalwart Jung Mong-joo have all but disappeared.

I realize that I keep using male pronouns to refer to the mind behind Nameless, when all the talk of Yeon-hyang this week leaves the possibility open that it very well could be her. Or, she was just acting under orders—but either way, the plot has definitely thickened. All the shrouded mysterious machinations remind me of Tree With Deep Roots in the best of ways, while also reminding me that I was absolutely terrible when it came to unwinding all the clandestine intrigue therein. So I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m totally wrong when it comes to Jung Mong-joo’s involvement, but I doubt the show was banking on us thinking Jung Mong-joo was involved in Nameless in the first place. Orrrr was it?

But if sending Jung Mong-joo to ruin Jung Do-jeon’s day was really a counterattack like Gil Sun-mi put it, then it had to have been a result of the dodang meeting and his negotiations with Lee Saek. If Nameless is seeking retaliation for that, it must mean that they have some stake in Lee Saek’s side of things, which could narrow down the choices a bit. I don’t know, I still think it’s Ha Ryun. He acts too out of the loop for someone trying to get into the business of rigging loops.

 
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