Seven Day Queen: Episode 6

by javabeans

Ahhh, I love everything about where we are right now—this episode is a perfect representation of my catnip, with the lovers reunited only in technicality, one doing his damnedest to preserve his new identity while the other is convinced that her heart is telling her that this is the one she fell in love with. Every exchange of hurt and angst cuts into that hope of hers (and ours), but in the most satisfying (but also sadistic) way.

 
EPISODE 6 RECAP

Shoved together in that small confessional with one wall slanted over their heads, Yeok kisses Chae-kyung. She freezes in shock, and then Yeok breaks the kiss when his friend Seok-hee comes by to check on the commotion.

Chae-kyung comes back to her senses and kicks Yeok in the leg while he’s distracted, then runs off. Yeok hops around in pain clutching the leg, bumps into the wall, and sends it toppling again. Hee.

Chae-kyung runs outside with her heart beating madly, forgetting all about Nanny waiting outside, and stomps home in a high temper. Seeing a stick lying around in her front yard, she picks it up and wields it like a sword, swinging it around furiously while cursing the jerk who couldn’t possibly be the prince after all. She’s pretty bloodthirsty with that thing. I’m thinking Yeok got off easy with one kick.

Her father finds her in the yard and asks why she’s practicing swordfighting. She tells him she thinks she’ll need it and asks for him to teach her, and he obliges, picking up another stick to engage her in a mock fight. As Chae-kyung swings fiercely, they have a silent conversation of sorts, as her father laughingly wonders what happened to get her so worked up, and Chae-kyung thinks in reply that it was absolutely nothing at all.

But she can’t shake the memory of the stranger who looks so much like Yeok, and wonders who he is. At one point, her father knocks aside her stick and bops her on the head, chuckling at her reaction, and that lightens her mood.

While the memory of their kiss keeps her awake that night, Yeok sits up with his ring—Chae-kyung’s promise to wait—which he keeps on a string like a necklace. Seo-no asks why he’s still up, and Yeok replies that he did something he shouldn’t have, which has brought up pointless feelings.

In the morning, Chae-kyung stirs awake to see her mother at her bedside, wearing a smile that frankly looks ominous. Her mother says she was talking in her sleep, saying over and over, “You’ll get a beating. You’ll get beat.” (Ha, was she imagining beating Yeok in her sleep?)

Her mother asks how she knew, and Chae-kyung gulps to ask what that is. Mother: “That you will be beaten.”

She smacks Chae-kyung on the back and wails about her continuing to wander around at night, and decides that she will have to be married straightaway. She declares that they’ll see the queen today and solidify marriage plans, and Chae-kyung begs for a few days’ time to prepare herself. She gets down on her knees and gives her mother her best puppy-dog face, saying that she just needs two days to take care of something.

At court, Yeonsangun’s ministers argue against his recent decision to send aid to the citizens who suffered from floods in the south, arguing that no region should receive preferential treatment over another. Yeonsangun sneers that they would ignore the plight of southerners to protect their own jobs, saying scathingly that they only oppose for the sake of opposition. Man, I love when Yeonsangun yells at his useless politicians.

Yeonsangun fumes over this as Nok-soo dresses him in his nobleman’s disguise. He rages at how the politicians who usually bicker amongst themselves manage to band together to oppose him. After he storms off, Nok-soo quietly tells Secretary Im that the timing is not right to press the king about increasing the tributes. Secretary Im sets a rendezvous for later to discuss the pirates who stole those tributes.

Chae-kyung returns to the pawnshop with another sack of rice (lol, does your mother know what you’re doing with those?) and barges right in, calling for the owner. Yeok and his two friends freeze, not knowing quite how to react, while Chae-kyung dumps the sack on the table and indicates that Yeok meet her at the confessional booth.

Yeok just walks out the front door, leaving Chae-kyung exclaiming, “Hey, Ghost!” She chases him outside and tugs his sleeve, and he asks sarcastically if he’s so attractive that a nobleman’s daughter would ignore shame to pursue him.

Chae-kyung actually steps closer and freely admits that he’s handsome, and that she likes his voice and gaze, which is “just like our prince.”

She asks earnestly if he’s the prince, and whether he was injured and perhaps lost his memory. Yeok looks conflicted for a moment, before he puts his mean face back on and tells her she’s spouting nonsense. Not swayed, she challenges him to convince her that he’s not the prince.

Yeok replies that she should think hard about what to do when a woman wants an answer out of a man. He indicates the prettily dressed gisaeng nearby, scoffing at Chae-kyung’s plainness.

Chief Secretary Im meets with Nok-soo privately at their appointed spot, and stares up at a portrait of the former king. He hands over a drawing of the pirate’s face, saying that he can’t shake the feeling that the pirate felt familiar, even though he’d definitely never seen him before. And then he realized that the pirate resembled the previous king.

Nok-soo’s eyes widen, but she argues that it can’t be, because the prince died and his corpse was brought to the palace. Secretary Im reminds her that the face was disfigured from injury, and they both compare the two pictures with growing suspicion. Nok-soo warns nervously that if Yeok is alive, they will die. Secretary Im replies, “If he is alive, he can just be killed again.”

At the pier, Yeok and his team note the officers milling around, inspecting boats and travelers closely. Seok-hee says it’s not as bad as it could be, having expected the king to send a lot more officers in wake of the pirating. Myung-hye says it’s because the king has been acting strangely lately, even sending aid to the south.

Seo-no wonders why the king would be ruling properly now, and Myung-hye asks if anyone has a hunch. Yeok just says he must have gotten the sudden urge to playact the role of a good king.

In his nobleman’s guise, Yeonsangun arrives at a gibang, where loud laughter from a nearby pavilion catches his attention. A group of gisaengs is gathered around a table with a young nobleman…

Or rather, Chae-kyung dressed as a young nobleman, asking for advice on how (s)he can help one of his concubines improve her appearance. Omo, is this how she’s going about Yeok’s challenge? I love how she’s going about this all sideways.

Chae-kyung eagerly jots down their tips on how to make cosmetics look natural, what kinds of dresses the men love, and what hairstyle is all the rage these days. She’s patting the hair of one gisaeng when she looks up to see Yeonsangun staring at her, looking rather disapproving.

She quickly recovers from her surprise to invite “Lord Lee” to join her, and gets in the playful jab that she thought he’d be busy working on behalf of the nation, only to find him out and about for entertainment. Yeonsangun says he is out for work, and she notes, “At a gibang?” Ha.

As Yeonsangun works on a painting of flowers, Chae-kyung hovers in the background admiringly. She recognizes the flowers as China roses and dips a brush in red ink to add the color to his painting, but Yeonsangun stops her, saying that he’s using a particular style of painting that doesn’t use color.

She backs off in disappointment, so he takes the brush from her and paints in the red petals. She points out that he was only painting in black and white, and he points out that she was insistent on a rose having color. It brings a wide smile to her face and a teeny one to his own.

At the pawnshop, Yeok’s team assembles to decide where to send food relief to those most in need; because the king is sending aid to the south, Yeok’s team can focus their efforts in other areas. Aww, you’re Robin Hood!

Seok-hee wonders if they have enough snail shells, which they leave as a signature so the people can thank the Snail Bride for helping them. Moreover, when Yeok is king, those people will be grateful to him and a source of support. (The Snail Bride is a classic children’s tale about a lonely farmer who helps a snail, who ends up turning into a beautiful woman whom he marries. When the king tries to take the bride for himself, he issues impossible challenges to the farmer, and it’s the bride who helps the farmer win with the aid of magical gifts from her father, the sea king.)

Yeok is preoccupied with the question of why Yeonsangun is acting differently these days. He recalls hearing Chae-kyung encouraging Yeonsangun to become a good and wise king and mutters, “He wants to become a good king because of that.”

And then, into the shop walks the most awkward gisaeng you ever did see, stumbling over her feet while attempting a graceful glide. Omg, I love Chae-kyung. This is awesome. I can’t watch!

She lifts her veil to reveal her made-up face and asks coyly if this is enough of an improvement for him. Yeok’s buddies gape at the pretty lady, and Yeok looks momentarily stunned too, before his face stiffens.

Then he recoils at the smell of liquor and asks if she’s been drinking. Chae-kyung replies, “Not liquor, medicine. The kind of medicine to erase embarrassment, shame, and the like.”

Chae-kyung wants Yeok to go somewhere with her, but he tells her to settle this here. So Chae-kyung props up a foot and hikes up her skirt, baring a few inches of leg. “Even now?”

Well, that does the trick and Yeok decides to go out, stopping to change his clothing. His friends warn that it’s risky to go out in the daytime like this, and that associating with Chae-kyung is dangerous given her closeness with the king. Yeok replies that he knows from childhood that she’s not likely to give up when she’s intent on something, so Seok-hee proposes a surefire way to get rid of a woman: Make her sick of you.

Yeok comes out dressed in full aristocrat’s threads, and Chae-kyung openly admires him. Putting on his coolest act, Yeok tells her in a deep(er than normal) voice, “Do as you like. For today, I am yours.”

They walk through the city streets attracting a fair amount of notice (probably because of her conspicuous getup), which seems to make Chae-kyung a little uneasy. Then he sees the king’s officers heading toward them and quickly veils her face and grabs her wrist, leading her down an alley and around a corner until they pass.

Then he unties her hat and tosses it to the ground, and steps closer, eyes fixed on her lips. Omo omo. She tenses in anticipation… and then he wipes the lip color off with his thumb, saying that’s better. He pulls off his outer robe and places it over her shoulders, then walks away, leaving Chae-kyung to hurry after him.

Myung-hye oversees her men loading goods, which Seo-no records in his log. Gwang-oh warns her to be careful when opening the packages (they’re stolen goods from Secretary Im), but she assures him that she’ll wait till they arrive in Ming. When she asks where Yeok is, his friends get nervous and fidgety and change the subject.

Chae-kyung takes Yeok to that bridge where she’d once sworn friendship with him, intent on stirring his dormant memories. She says that he’d immediately liked the idea of being friends, and Yeok scoffs to himself that he only agreed because she whined so much. He doesn’t betray outward recognition, though, so Chae-kyung takes him to the mountain stream where he’d once carried her on his back.

She explains how he’d pretended she was heavy so she’d whacked him on the back, and Yeok thinks, “It was the back of the head.” She crouches by the water to dip her fingers in, and they both think of when he’d agreed to marry her because he liked her, not because it was arranged. Now, Chae-kyung tells him of the proposal she’d received here, to live as friends even in marriage.

Yeok crouches next to her and reaches down to the water, but suddenly Chae-kyung grabs his hands and looks all over, then notes with disappointment that “it” isn’t there. Then she looks toward his neck and practically tackles him, sending him backward and landing on top of him. He’s confused, and she exclaims that he could be wearing her promise ring around his neck.

In response, Yeok flips their positions so she’s lying on her back, then pulls aside his collar to reveal a bare neck. She’s disappointed once again. (But I’m not. Eeee!)

They get back to their feet breathing a little unsteadily, and he asks if it wouldn’t be okay for him not to be Grand Prince Jinsung. (As in, can’t he just be somebody else?)

Chae-kyung hurries to follow as he walks on, and in her haste she loses her balance and starts to flail backward, toward the water. Pwah, you can play these skinship games alllll day long, I don’t even mind.

Yeok races forward to catch her, and as he looks down at her face, he thinks again, this time with wistfulness, if it wouldn’t be okay for him not to be the prince. He pulls her arms from his neck, leaving Chae-kyung all aflutter with feelings.

When the ministers arrive in the throne room, they’re greeted with the unusual sight of flower paintings set out on the ground. They take their usual positions looking confused, and Yeonsangun tells them he took their words deeply to heart. He indicates the paintings and calls them a small expression of his affection.

Yeonsangun instructs them to sell his paintings, so that he can use the proceeds toward disaster relief for the people. The ministers balk that they couldn’t dare affix a price to these, but he calls it a royal order, forcing the ministers to each take a painting while exchanging alarmed looks amongst themselves. When Deputy Commander Park picks one up, Yeonsangun claims it back, saying that it was set out in error and is meant for someone else. It’s the China rose piece.

The queen dowager arrives just as the ministers leave, and she trades a few words with Chae-kyung’s father, Minister Shin. She’s polite in tone but her words seem barbed as she wonders at the ministers’ unhappy faces and whether the king has forgotten that they are also citizens of the nation. Minister Shin replies that as long as those ministers do not themselves forget that they are citizens, the king will not, either.

Walking through a field, Yeok declares that it’s only fair that he decide where to go now, and when Chae-kyung complains about his overly quick pace, he stops and extends a hand. Seeing her hesitation, he starts to withdraw his hand, which makes her panic and grab it tightly. Aw, he even smiles, and then he adjusts their hands to get a better hold.

Yeonsangun rides out of the palace thinking of the China rose painting, intending to give it as a gift. To Chae-kyung, perhaps?

Yeok brings Chae-kyung to a gravesite—his own. Suddenly his demeanor turns mean and vulgar as he “thanks” the prince for allowing him a fun day out with a minister’s daughter, and Chae-kyung glares daggers at his now-rakish attitude. He refuses to let go of her hand and tells the prince that the lady has already shared her feelings with him—and body heat, and breath. Aw, I know why you’re doing this but I hate when you’re being an ass.

Chae-kyung tries to slap him, though he grabs her arm and prevents it. “You should be wondering yourself,” he says, “whether you are doing this because you believe I am Grand Prince Jinsung, or if you are using him as an excuse to harbor feelings for me.”

His voice grows harder as he adds, “And even if you were to meet him, did it not occur to you that pretending not to know him would be to his benefit? To you, he is a childhood first love and betrothed. Would it be the same for him? What guarantee is there that he would want to see you?”

Her chin trembles and she glares with tear-filled eyes. Yeok says firmly, “My name is Nak-chun. I have a woman. No, if you truly are thinking of Grand Prince Jinsung, do not chase other men while mentioning the name of the dead. It just makes the dead pitiful.”

As he walks off, he thinks to himself that the prince she liked is dead now. Left behind, Chae-kyung sinks down to the ground as it starts to rain, staying there long after darkness falls.

Yeok walks through the rain back to the pawnshop, and while his friends give him space, Myung-hye asks what happened with Chae-kyung, having heard the gist from Seok-hee.

She presses him for an answer, and he admits that he got angry: “While I was living in hell, she was close with my hyungnim of all people, and it made me angry! So I wanted to torment her.”

Myung-hye asks caustically if his revenge is to spend all day with Chae-kyung and kiss her. He tries to dismiss that as nothing, and then she grabs him and kisses him.

And that’s the sight that greets Chae-kyung when she arrives at the door. She turns and leaves silently.

Yeok breaks the kiss, and Myung-hye says that even if he calls his kiss with Chae-kyung nothing, she wants to erase it. That’s when they both notice the open door, and Yeok finds his outer cloak on the railing, which he’d lent Chae-kyung earlier.

He runs out into the street looking for her, but stops himself from following. Instead, he watches her back as she walks away.

At a tea shop, Yeonsangun eyes the rose painting and has it prepared as a gift. He looks out over the railing to see Chae-kyung walking in the street, drenched in the rain, and goes out to meet her with an umbrella overhead. She barely even registers him, walking past numbly, and then loses strength in her legs and falls to the street.

He rushes to her side, and only now does she recognize him. She cries that she doesn’t know what she’s done or why she’s acting this way. Yeonsangun helps her to stand, but as soon as she does, she slumps against him, unconscious.

That’s what Yeok sees when he comes running up the street, and he’s so intent on the scene that he barely pays Seo-no any heed when he urges him to run and puts a hat on his head.

It’s a good thing for Seo-no, though, because Scarface spots them in the street and calls for his men, who chase them through the streets and into the woods. The two friends dive off a cliff into the water below, while Scarface’s men shoot arrows into the water.

Yeok sinks into the water, knocked partially unconscious, and hears both young Chae-kyung and adult Chae-kyung calling out for him. He stirs awake as Seo-no grabs him, and they swim for the surface.

Once indoors and warmed up, Yeonsangun asks Chae-kyung what tonight was about. She tells him that she saw someone who looked like the prince, named Nak-chun, and that he was the man at the inn. He was so similar in eyes and voice and mannerisms that she mistook him for Yeok.

Yeonsangun asks if she’s crying because she realizes that man isn’t the prince. She shakes her head in confusion, not knowing whether it’s because of Nak-chun’s harsh words, or because she’s shocked that he’s not the prince, or… She thinks of the kiss she just saw, but doesn’t mention that aloud.

She just calls herself crazy, saying, “I do not even know if I have the right to cry like this. I’m so sorry to the prince.”

Scarface reports back to Secretary Im, who is irate to hear that the pirates got away. Scarface vows to catch them now that he knows they’re in the city, and Secretary Im tells him not to bother with capture: Kill on sight.

Back at the pawnshop, the other three are on edge with worry until Yeok and Seo-no return. Myung-hye confronts him about how reckless he’s being over that woman, asking if he’s got a death wish and wants everyone to find out who he is. She warns that if Yeok can cut the tie, she’ll step in. “Don’t ever forget what it took for us to get here,” she says.

He doesn’t answer her, but he doesn’t argue, either.

Yeonsangun falls asleep on his throne that night and dreams of seeing the corpse of the young prince when it was brought to the palace. With trembling hand and fearful eyes, he reaches up to pull back the cloth covering the face, but squeezes his eyes shut at the last moment, unable to look. We see what he can’t, that the face has been badly injured.

As he sleeps fitfully, Yeonsangun hears Chae-kyung’s words about seeing a man resembling the prince. Meanwhile, a man silently creeps into the room and approaches the throne—Yeok, who pulls a dagger from his sleeve.

Yeonsangun stirs awake, and as his eyes come into focus, Yeok thinks to himself, “Death is too easy. You will feel a pain even greater than death, hyungnim.”

Yeonsangun leaps to his feet and immediately clutches at his head as a ringing sound overtakes him and ghostly whispers fly through the air. When he looks around again, however, there’s nobody there.

But a shadowy figure sneaks out of the building, dodging passing officers—so Yeok really did come to the palace? Wow, ballsy.

He’s dressed in eunuch’s uniform and bows to the passing queen, hoping to go unnoticed. She calls out to him, but is in turn interrupted by another voice—the queen dowager, Yeok’s mother.

The queen dowager happens to catch a glimpse of the passing eunuch, and her smile freezes in immediate recognition. But she keeps her composure to exchange pleasantries with the queen.

Once the queen’s entourage passes, the queen dowager meets eyes with her son, and it’s clear that she knows this is him. Yeok gives her a small nod, and she continues on her way.

He finds her a bit later at her own quarters, and it turns out Myung-hye had tipped her off about Yeok possibly heading to the palace. The queen dowager calls his actions rash and tells him that right now they should be biding their time. Yeok counters that while waiting, she lost him. “I am thinking to find my own way,” he says. “I have just confirmed that hiding and running away is not my way.”

He turns to go, but pauses to tell his mother that he missed her. Then he makes his clean escape from the palace and rides off. Inside, his mother cradles his prince’s clothing to her chest, while Yeok thinks, “Mother, just wait a little longer. I will return to your side.”

Yeonsangun is in a dark mood as he draws a picture of Yeok, or at least Yeok in his current guise as Nak-chun. Secretary Im’s eyes widen the moment he sees the picture, but feigns ignorance when the king asks if he also thinks this man resembles the dead prince. Both Secretary Im and Nok-soo look alarmed, though they remain silent.

Yeonsangun tells them of the man named Nak-chun who looks like the prince and met Chae-kyung. He tosses over a wooden badge that signifies the king’s authority and tells Secretary Im to use whatever resources he needs, whether it’s the police or the military.

Secretary Im promises to find and eliminate him, but Yeonsangun tells him to bring him before him instead: “I must see with my own eyes.”

Nok-soo and Secretary Im are worried that the king has already caught wind of this, and it puts the pressure on them to resolve it quickly. Even having the king’s badge comes with risks, as using it will alert the queen dowager, which would complicate things. Secretary Im decides that they can use Chae-kyung: “It seems he still carries old affections—he will fall into a trap.”

Chae-kyung returns to Yeok’s grave the next day, bowing before the grave and thinking, “Your highness, you were very disappointed in me, weren’t you? I have come to beg your forgiveness, so please do not be too angry.”

Eyes welling with tears, she tells Yeok, “I’m sorry for confusing you with someone absurd. I missed you so much that I must have lost my mind.”

Time for our pirates to make their move. That night, Gwang-oh instructs their men to avoid notice: “We are not trying to be heroes, we are trying to offer hope, that the heavens have not abandoned the Joseon people.” Seok-hee chimes in, holding up the snail shells: “All we have to do is convey the message that us Snail Brides are at their sides.”

Yeok surprises his team by declaring that he’ll join them. Seok-hee tries to tell him that he can’t, but Yeok just asks, “Am I to hide behind you forever?” Oh, this can’t be good. I have a bad feeling about this, and Seo-no looks worried. So does Myung-hye, but I don’t care about her so whatever.

Chae-kyung walks home alone and startles at a sound nearby, which makes her quicken her pace. From a distance, we see that it’s Scarface and his henchmen, here on orders to keep an eye on her. Chae-kyung becomes aware of being followed, although every time she turns around, she sees nobody. Finally she breaks into a run, and Scarface follows suit.

Gwang-oh and Seok-hee awkwardly jump a wall with a sack of rice, not quite catlike with grace. They leave the rice and shells outside the house, then jump back onto the wall—except right as they do, Chae-kyung happens by and locks eyes with Gwang-oh.

Gwang-oh shakes his head at her as though willing her not to scream, but then Seok-hee joins him and she runs with a shriek. The bumbling duo hurries to chase after her before she gives them away, and as Chae-kyung rounds a corner, another man grabs her and claps a hand over her mouth—Yeok.

He chides, “Have you forgotten what happens when you get wrongly caught up in others’ business?” She recognizes his voice and calms, so Yeok turns his attention back to the street where his team carries out their deliveries. Chae-kyung’s mind flashes to a string of memories: teenage Yeok denouncing their friendship to spare her his punishment, him taking the blame on his own, and them running from Scarface in the village.

She’d asked then why they were running when they did nothing wrong, and Yeok had told her that even if they did nothing wrong, they could still die. So now, Chae-kyung repeats those words: “Why are we running away, when we have done nothing wrong?”

Yeok says automatically, still fixated on his crew outside, “Even if we do nothing wrong—”

“—we could still die?” Chae-kyung finishes. Suddenly he realizes what he’s said, and turns to see Chae-kyung looking at him with this light in her face. All he can do is walk away, but she runs after him and grabs him tightly around the waist.

“It’s you,” she cries. “Why are you lying? Why do you say it isn’t? It is—it’s you.” She sobs into his back, Yeok fights his own tears.

Down the street, Myung-hye steps out and sees the couple, looking stricken.

 
COMMENTS

Oh yay, she knows (again)! And has confirmed it (again)! More than the fact that she knows, I’m encouraged by the way this drama has handled these twists, keeping the characters constantly guessing and assessing each other and shaking up the status quo before things have a chance to stagnate. Dramas can lose a lot of punch (and crack factor) when they unfold as we expect, when we expect it to. Those dramas aren’t necessarily unenjoyable, but I always wish they had one extra trick up their sleeves, and am thrilled when shows do the opposite in remaining one step ahead of us. Just when you think you know where they’re taking this story and thinking it’ll stretch out for a couple more episodes, the show decides to reveal it now and let it happen immediately, and that sense of excitement is not something I take for granted.

I recall the excitement I felt at the same conflict in Joseon Gunman, with the hero thought dead and returning with a new name, and the heroine just desperate to believe it was the same man. I liked that drama a lot, but it was one of those predictable ones, when all along it was this that I wanted, this show with all the feeling and stakes and quick tempo.

This episode is probably my favorite part of this setup of the trope of the hero coming back with a new identity, and there’s such delightful tension in watching her fish for clues and him doing his best to shut her down. It’s what makes even his hurtful words oddly enjoyable, because we know he doesn’t mean them and that he feels just the opposite, but he’s doing everything he can to get her to give up. And, having known her as a child, he knows how much it takes to get her to give up on something she’s set her heart on. That quality is something I really love to see in grown-up Chae-kyung, who’s all honest admissions and straightforward intent. Part of me cringes a little when she’s so forward about falling for Yeok (er, Nak-chun) right away, but it also endears her to me, and I remember how sweet she was as a child, declaring that she would marry him over and over again.

I know a lot of the repeated skinship scenarios were a little much, especially so one after the other, but I have a lot of affection for the way they were used in this episode. It’s partly fanservice and partly a wink at the audience, and on that front I found it hilarious. It’s also a really nice way to shove the two together (literally), almost like a collision of physicality could prompt a collision of memories. Yeok can lie as much as he wants, and there’s no denying that his cutting words are pretty effective at doing as he intends. But then you have all these accidental falls and forced clinches, and it’s like we’re testing his resolve on all fronts, and every time he finds it harder to stick to his story.

It’s almost enough for me to wish we had a little longer before Chae-kyung figured out it was him (I suppose they could always backtrack on that next week, but for now it’s pretty clear her belief has grown stronger), because I enjoyed his struggle in a perverse sort of way, and would have loved to see more breaks in the facade.

I find Yeonsangun’s conflict as fascinating as ever, too, as he cares for Chae-kyung as she’s longing for Yeok. I appreciate that it doesn’t seem fully romantic to me—the feelings are complicated, and tied up in issues of family and trust as much as they are his guilt and jealousy. We’ve seen Yeok admit his anger at seeing Chae-kyung with Yeonsangun after all these years, and I both fear and anticipate what will be Yeonsangun’s reaction when he’s put in the opposite scenario. I do think he would be glad to know Yeok were still alive, but also expect him to tamp down that tiny flash of humanity deep down under his layers of paranoia and defensiveness, and Chae-kyung, as always is the complication in the middle. It’s both sweet and heartbreaking to know that she’s the one who brings out the best in both men, individually… but I suspect that she’ll also be the thing capable of bringing out the worst, too. I just hope she can bring out more good things than bad, because I love everyone too much for anything else.

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