Writer: Christine Romalewski
Editors: Val Kaye Taozen & Tabby
Pictures credit: SBS
Recap begins:
Recap begins:
Yeoning and Suk Bin
Episode 15 continues where Episode
14 ended, with a stunned Yeoning trying to process the incomprehensible idea
that Daegil could possibly be his deceased older brother. He apprehensively but directly asks his
ailing mother if Daegil is his brother, and she tearfully confirms that he is
and explains the reasons for her giving him up.
No one – not the ministers, not the queen, not even the king himself –
would have allowed this child to survive.
But even in the midst of her
emotional pain in relieving this abandonment of ‘that poor child’, we see her
ever-present pragmatism when she tells her son that if she hadn’t done this, ‘I
would not be where I am today. Yeoning, you would not be here today.’
She tells Yeoning about her
continued anguish over Daegil’s imprisonment, until Yeoning tells her that the
king has released Daegil and sent him to capture the gambler, Cutter! Fearing for the danger that the king has put
Daegil in and convinced that Sukjong has ulterior motives for releasing Daegil,
she determines to confront the king, but collapses from weakness. Yeoning tells
her not to worry - he will discover the king’s real intent.
Jeonggamrok
In Jwa unwraps a copy of a book
named Jeonggamrok, and explains to Hwang
Jin Ki (his swordsman) that it is a book of prophesy that foretells the future demise
of the current Yi dynasty and the rise of the Jeong dynasty. In Jwa doesn’t know who that Jeong is.
We flashback to a 1697
meeting where the finishing touches are being put on a plan to overthrow King
Sukjong. A figure, whom we assume is
Jeong, the leader of this rebellion, remains in shadow, backlit behind a window
screen and listening to all that’s being said.
Among the gathered rebels is young man busily sharpening the blade of
his cleaver to use on the king. His little
sister, Soon Im, joins him. She says he won’t need that sharp blade because the
king is hers to kill with her short sword. (The resemblance between Soon Im and
present day Seol Im is instantly apparent, and we realize that the young man is
Cutter, minus all of that hair!) The banter between Cutter and Soon Im clearly
shows the affection they feel for each other.
Treasonous palace guards will assist by opening the palace gates to the rebels
at 11pm. The rebels have only this one
opportunity to succeed in killing the king.
In Jwa tells us that many people were in favor of this rebellion because
they believed that this was the Jeong of the prophesy, and that King Sukjong
fears this prophesy more than he fears a thousand rebels.
Yeoning and Jeonggamrok
In an audience with King
Sukjong, Yeoning tells his father, ‘Politics is about giving up something in
order to gain something else,’ and he asks his father what the king has to gain
from both releasing Daegil and sending him after Cutter. Speaking from behind his ever-present screen
of vapor, the king turns the question around and asks Yeoning how much he knows
about Daegil. Yeoning tells Sukjong that
Daegil is the son of gambler Baek Man Geum, a pupil of master swordsman Kim
Chae Gun, his friend, and… The king cuts
him off and cynically tells him he’s wrong!
Daegil is not his friend but instead is a hunting dog, useful for bringing
you prey when it’s needed but, when his usefulness is finished, good only for
being hunted down and eaten himself!
King Sukjong then brings out
the original Jeonggamrok book. He tells
Yeoning how the prophesy that a Jeong will bring down the Yi dynasty led to the
deaths of thousands and caused a revolt against Sukjong himself. In a gory
flashback to the 1697 rebellion, we see the palace guards opening the palace
doors; the rebels rushing in; and intense fighting between the rebels and the
king’s men - with a wounded, bloodied king in the thick of the fight. Fiercely defending the king is Kim Chae Gun
(Daegil’s teacher). As the rebels are
cut down, Cutter and little Soon Im remain among the few rebels left in the
palace. Cutter sees his father struck
down by Kim Chae Gun, and then watches as ferocious little Soon Im barges
toward Kim Chae Gun, only to be struck down.
He’s stunned with grief and fear as Kim Chae Gun hovers over him, while
his sister desperately cries for him to save himself. As Soon Im dies, shell-shocked Cutter runs
away. The badly wounded King Sukjong inflicts
one last, bloodthirsty lunge at a rebel leader, who with his gravelly dying
breath yells ‘The Yi dynasty will become extinct. Jeongs will be the new monarchs!’ Back in the present time, Sukjong tells
Yeoning that Cutter is one of the rebels and a traitor. Sukjong says his ultimate
goal is to destroy the root behind both Yi In Jwa and Cutter!
Yeoning determines to learn
everything he can about Jeong; He pours through 1697 rebellion documentation
and learns from minister Kim Chang Jib that a servant of the rebel leader
survived the rebellion. Yeoning visits this
man and finds a poor creature whose head is permanently bent because Jeong
broke his neck. Yeoning solicits the man’s help in identifying Jeong.
Yi In Jwa
Yi In Jwa continues to pull
strings behind the scenes. He sends Moo Myung (his right hand man) to bring the
drawing he did in Episode 14 to Mother Hwanggu (In Jwa’s shaman). Moo Myung says the dragon fish represents the
king. However, the two fish in the lotus pond symbolizes rebellion! Hwanggu says
she personally will deliver this drawing to the Master (Jeong?). In addition to
sending the drawing to Hwanggu, In Jwa also tells Hwang Jin Ki that he has
three immediate goals: redirect the
king’s venom away from himself and towards Cutter; get the list of all the
people who paid Cutter to assassinate palace officials; and find out who Jeong
is…and only Cutter knows who he is.
Then, surprisingly, In Jwa says he doesn’t believe the prophesy about
Jeong being the next king. Instead, he
predicts the next king will be Baek Daegil!
Daegil and Cutter
After his release from
prison, Daegil runs purposefully down a road at dusk. He stops suddenly when he hears a rustle. He closes
his eyes, listening very intently, and draws his sword. He hears six attackers. He disables one
archer with a forcefully flipped coin and catches the arrow of the archer, flinging
it back to pierce the attacker. His blue satin garments spinning like a
pinwheel around him, he fends off four swordsmen, twirling and slashing with
his sword and scabbard in each hand!
Daegil, then, demands one of the defeated swordsmen lead him to Cutter.
Before Daegil arrives, Seol
Im asks Cutter why he won’t release her as he agreed to do after Six Ghosts
death. Cutter tells her that he simply
changed his mind. Seol Im is shocked
when Cutter also tells her that tonight he’s going to crush this Daegil whom
she cares so much about. When Daegil
arrives at Cutters gambling house, the two men share lengthy, intense stares
with each other. The room quickly fills
with gambling house patrons who know that they’re going to see a good show. Among those present are Yeon Hwa (Gol Sa’s
daughter) and Dam Seo, who sits quietly on the sidelines. Cool-headed Daegil flippantly says, “This is
too much of a welcome”, and equally flippant Cutter responds, “You must be
happy. You have so many mourners at your funeral.” Cutter challenges Daegil to beat him at the
‘whoever picks the 10 card wins the gambling room’ game. Daegil says he didn’t think this challenge
would be this easy. Cutter replies he hasn’t yet heard the one rule that guides
the game: there are NO rules and ANYTHING goes. The show begins. Cutter signals
two henchmen to attack. Daegil fends
them off easily, even tipping the brim of his hat like a cowboy at the end of
one of the encounters. Cutter ups the ante by covering all of the candles in
the room, plunging the room into darkness, and turns his henchmen loose onto
Daegil. After the sounds of swordplay
end and the candles are uncovered, Cutter sees the floor littered with the writhing
bodies of his henchmen and Daegil standing directly in front of him with a
slightly mocking smile on his face.
Cutter refuses to admit that
he’s lost, so Yeon Hwa suggests they play one-on-one with each other. She deals two cards face down and tells says
whoever picks the ten wins the game.
Daegil immediately chooses a card, and also says that he’s unsure if
Cutter and Yeon Hwa have rigged the game against him. Cutter says Daegil can kill him if he thinks
the game is unfair. Daegil responds by having one arm tied behind his back to
better match Cutter’s one good arm in a fight. The sword fight between the two
men begins in earnest. Attempting to stop the fight and protect Daegil, Seol Im
runs in front of him, necessitating a beautiful spin by Daegil in front of Seol
Im to protect her from Cutter’s blade. Cutter’s blade misses. Cutter goes to the table, picks a card
without looking at it, and claims victory because he clearly won the blade
fight. Daegil, however, challenges him to show his card, insisting that if he
wins he gets both the gambling hall and Seol Im. Cutter still seems certain
that he’s won until Daegil asks him if he trusts Yeon Hwa, again implying that
Yeon Hwa rigged the game. Cutter shows his card – it isn’t a 10! Daegil proclaims that the other card must be
the ten, so he’s won! Cutter looks at
Yeon Hwa. She stares at him, directly
asking, “Why did you kill my father?”
Cutter looks from Yeon Hwa to Daegil and starts laughing, saying, “So,
you knew?” Yeon Hwa furiously replies, “I
just found out now…when you confessed to it!”
Daegil moves to the table and turns his card face up – it isn’t a
ten! “The goal of this game was to get
you to confess on your own”, he tells Cutter.
Cutter is stunned that Daegil
and Yeon Hwa planned the entire scenario. With Yeon Hwa screeching at him, asking
why he killed her father, he tells her no reason is needed to kill a gambler
and the game isn’t over yet. Daegil
accepts still another challenge to fight. Cutter removes his arm sling and
shakes out his arm, which crunches from lack of use. Cutter says, “This time it’s real” to which Daegil
counters, “You’ll feel it, the wide gap between you and me.” The two men begin a brief but intense match,
which includes a slow motion backward airborne flip by Daegil. The fight ends with Cutter being disarmed and
driven to his knees. With his sword at
Cutter’s throat, Daegil orders Cutter to reveal who hired him to kill Gol Sa –
it’s Yi In Jwa. But Cutter goes on to
say that he didn’t kill Gol Sa for the money; he did it solely because he
wanted to. He looks tenderly at Seol Im, saying he thought for a moment that
he’d escape being what he’d become – a killer – but he’s gone too far. He has a sweet, poignant memory of seeing a
starving Seol Im ravenously eating when she first came to him, and when Seol Im
looks at him he sees little Soon Im looking at him with a smile. With a tear rolling down his cheek, Cutter
tells Daegil to take responsibility for Seol Im – and we see both surprise and
empathy in Daegil’s eyes.
Suddenly, Yeoning enters the
hall with the crooked neck man shuffling behind him. Cutter realizes that in addition to
confessing to Gol Sa’s murder, part of the plan for tonight was to get him to
reveal who Jeong is, but he refuses to talk.
Undeterred, Yeoning asks the crooked neck man to see if Jeong is in the
room. Crooked neck man and Cutter look
intently at each other; then, crooked neck man looks twice around the room but
doesn’t see Jeong. He apologizes to the prince and shuffles out.
Yeoning orders the arrest of Cutter
as a traitor, but Cutter asks permission to have one last drink in his gambling
house. Of course, Cutter drops
fast-acting poison pellets into his drink. He takes one last look at Seol Im,
whose big eyes are fixed on him with concern, and drinks the potion. Dam Seo, who’s been invisible during all of
this, unsheathes a knife. Cutter collapses; Seol Im and Daegil race to his
side, and Yeoning and Yeon Hwa stare in horror. Dam Seo leaves the room. As
he’s dying, Cutter tenderly touches Seol Im’s tear-stained cheek and tells her
“For a brief moment I was happy because you were here, Seol Im. Thank you.”
He, then, turns his head to Daegil, whose eyes show a mix of compassion
and understanding. Cutter says, “
completely lost”, and dies.
Jeong Eui Ryang
Outside, crooked neck man and
Yi In Jwa cross paths. In Jwa asks “Is it you?”
When the men turn to face each other, crooked neck man straightens his head
(!) and says it’s unwise for them to meet openly like this for fear of being
discovered by the king. In Jwa persists
and suggests they join forces. Crooked neck man is skeptical that In Jwa won’t betray
him after he’s king. In Jwa tells him he has trust issues – in fact he won’t
even reveal his name. The man says, “I
am Jeong Eui Ryang.” In Jwa recognizes
the name as being that of a prominent leader from Yongnam, and suggests that if
they combine their resources they can “chew up the government and eat it.” Daegil appears on the street. Jeong instantly
becomes crooked neck man again and shuffles away after giving In Jwa a flower,
but the two men clearly agree to discuss business again.
The Brother Bombshell
In the street outside of
Cutter’s gaming house, Daegil tells In Jwa that he’s the only person still
alive on Daegil’s list of people to eliminate.
As Yeoning walks up to join them, In Jwa drops the “you’re Yeoning’s
brother bombshell” on Daegil! A stunned
Daegil looks at an equally stunned Yeoning, asks if it’s true, then follows In
Jwa to his home. At Daegil’s request for
the full story, In Jwa tells him the truth, carefully leaving out his role,
about Suk Bin’s marriage to Man Geum, how she became Sukjong’s concubine and
left Man Geum, and how she abandoned her premature baby to Man Geum. Daegil sarcastically asks why should he
believe that Suk Bin is his mother, but In Jwa encourages him recall the few inexplicability
tender moments he’s had with Suk Bin.
With all of these thoughts swirling through his head, Daegil still
hasn’t grasped the fact with the greatest repercussions. The episode ends with In Jwa telling him that
his father isn’t Baek Man Geum – it is the king!
Personal thoughts
I initially thought that this
episode would be less emotionally engaging than some of the others because
there are so many action scenes, but while scrutinizing each scene for this recap
I realized how wrong I was. The excellently executed action scenes actually
provide a welcome break from all of the pain that permeates this episode. Suk
Bin’s reliving of the loss of her son; Yeoning’s confusion and sense of
betrayal at the existence of an unknown brother; Daegil’s world turned upside
down after learning that his heritage isn’t anything close to what he thought
it was. Most surprising to me, though, is the heartbreak that the writers and actors
made us feel for the assassin Cutter. The moment I saw his sister Soon Im, I
knew that I was going to mourn for a man who lived an emotionally shut down
life doing terrible things. The scene where Cutter looks at Seol Im and sees
Soon Im’s smile is one that I’m having difficulty getting out of my brain. I
truly love how the writers had every ‘upright’ character both horrified and
devastated by the poignancy of the last moments in the life of this killer. If
redemption is possible at the end of a badly lived life, Cutter was redeemed.
________________________________
BW
Thanks for sharing this recap sisters...
ReplyDeleteI agree on your personal thoughts...my sentiments exactly...esp the scene of Seol Im ... I keep seeing her smile and the tender look of her brother...aigooo...reminds me of how unfair life can be