Moon Lovers Retrospective Ep. 14

This post contains spoilers. Consider yourself fairly warned. ;)

Despite holding out the promise of blossoming romance, this episode is riddled with relationship issues for Su and So. Even after a time skip of two years, the push and pull is still in play. As this episode exemplifies, there are good reasons for that but more than that, the drama insinuates that the obstacles facing our OTP go much deeper than just external interferences. There are some fundamental flaws in this relationship, which can’t be swept aside so easily. They surely augur some rough terrain ahead.

In my last post I declared that Su and Uk were doomed from the start. If I am to exercise the same level of scrutiny with the alternate pairing that I root for and be the equal opportunity doomsayer that I aspire to be then I must make the same proclamation here for So and Su. I’m not especially gleeful about making it but if as a reviewer I can’t eschew my biases and look at the drama with an open mind, then I’m wasting my time and yours.

There are very good reasons now to believe that So and Su were on the road to heartache even in these earlier days. The signs were there but because we craved a happily-ever-after ending for them, we zoned out even when all the red flags were raised. Episode 14 proves to be quite deceptive because on the surface it persists with the appearance of romantic progression and yet deep digging reveals some serious impediments to consummation.

The birthday scene, which always elicits a chuckle or two from me, points to certain issues in the dynamic. It’s always such a delight when So and Su bicker dryly… and I’m inordinately fond of watching So stewing in jealous displeasure… but that scene does underscore the rumblings of trouble that’s lurking in paradise. While Goryeo isn’t an amenable environment to the kind of love they both crave, it is also true that Goryeo isn’t the only thing that is keeping those two from having their happily-ever-after.

Despite basking in the emotional rewards that were doled out frugally in this episode, this was also the episode, where for the first time, I had the strongest urge urge to give So a good kick in the rear end from Goryeo to Khitan country.

Well, I never thought So was perfect but it’s clear that where relationships are concerned, he’s perennially trapped in his teens.

In a relationship between adults, I would expect adults to communicate with each other like adults. It’s one thing when mum and dad don’t tell kids everything to protect them from things they’re not ready to hear about or have the emotional capacity to handle. But when a man loves a woman enough that he wants to kiss her, marry her and possibly even have babies with her, it’s insanely ludicrous that he should keep such a big secret to himself… which isn’t even much of a secret to begin with… and then compounding the situation by letting her hear it from others first via the palace grapevine. To add insult to injury, he refuses to provide any explanation why he suddenly married the King’s daughter leaving her on her own to imagine the worst.

His rationale for not trying to explain himself appears high-minded but it’s silliness of the slap-able kind. He’s angry for having to put her in the position of having to grin and bear it and yet he’s unwilling to tell her why he won’t “give excuses”. The logic fails me.

I love So warts and all… but honestly, in the way he handled this matter, how was he all that different from Eun?

Su knew exactly what So was up to when they agreed to meet at the prayer pagoda. She was all dressed for the occasion even wearing that pass-the-parcel hairpin which has come to signify the push and pull in their relationship. Clearly she was all giddy in full anticipation of what’s to come. Her disappointment was palpable when first he took his time coming and then he made an awkward show of pretence that he had forgotten what he was going to say.  I imagine he must have been trying to cushion the blow that was to come. Whatever it was that was going through that wolf-dog head of his, he made that choice for her. I don’t dispute the decision to marry the princess and that was his to make but the choice to remain with him in spite of had to be Su's. 

There were several problems with what went on here. Firstly, by refusing to provide an explanation, he put her in emotional limbo. It was never quite clear to me if it meant the end to their courtship. Was he breaking up with her? Putting a definitive end to their push and pull? I could only assume so. Even the poem he sent her didn't do much by way of clarification. It’s a lovely poem and I understood it as an expression of his disappointment of not being able to be with her as something unexpected came up and threw a spanner in the works.

Secondly, he pre-empted her response thereby giving her no chance to respond to the actual issues and process her feelings accordingly. He knew only too well that she didn’t care to be Wife #2 in a polygamous arrangement. However, despite trying to preserve himself for the one woman, brotherly obligations took precedence over his own desires and political expediency ruled the day. While it was distasteful to his pride to ask her to wait or hang on, in his heart of hearts, I’m certain he desperately wanted her to.

As she had no idea what was being asked of her, she resigned herself to the situation and walked away, believing that this was the end of any conversation about marriage between them.

I tend to think that he shut down the conversation fast because he was in part ashamed that he couldn’t do what he had promised previously. In part he was afraid of hearing her condemnatory response, although his pride and bravado would make a show of it himself. He was obviously hoping to mitigate the damage by not having to refer to the matter explicitly as it was something that she found repulsive.

Thirdly, he led her to believe that she had lost priority in his heart. In effect, she thought she had been dumped not for another woman but for some newly discovered ambition that he was too embarrassed to fess up to. But more than that I think she was hurt that he couldn’t be honest with her and led her on for as long as he did.

Fourthly, his entire approach didn’t work. Obviously he thought he was protecting her. Maybe he thought he was giving her an out even though he probably wasn’t that keen to let her go. What he did, rather than improving matters, made things worse than they needed to be. She was still heartbroken and angry but for all the wrong reasons.

When So once told Baek-A that he wasn’t very good at communicating with others… he wasn’t being unnecessarily modest.

Su also knew that So was lying at the prayer pagoda when he said he had forgotten what he was about to confess but she thought he had suddenly gotten cold feet and told him to take his time. In that sequence of double-talk between them she was also trying to tell him that he didn't have hold back any longer and she was ready to move to the next level with him. Unfortunately he didn't think he deserved to move to the next level with her. People in adult relationships talk things through not cocoon each other from harsh realities or think that they can do so with no long-term consequences. Notice too that when Su finally got her explanation she voluntarily admitted that she had given Jeong refuge at her place. When that drainpipe got unclogged, their ability to communicate honestly and freely returned. 

Many fans berate Su in Ep. 15-16 for not trusting So enough. But I think a similar criticism can be leveled against So for not trusting Su to understand his predicament. Especially not long after having such an empathetic conversation under the stars about sibling rivalry. The fact that Su has proven repeatedly that she can be understanding of all his ugly deeds and thoughts should have encouraged him to be much more frank with her from the start.

Of course fear of losing her was the determining factor behind the silliness in this episode.

There’s a parallel occurrence of this with Eun and Seon Deok. Eun is gradually falling for his wife and seeing her with Jeong arouses the green-eyed monster and so instead of being honest with her and himself, he lashes out at her like the emotionally stunted, hormonally charged teenager that we know him to be. Jealousy reveals the true state of his heart that is hidden beneath the pretence of indifference.

As much as I despair over Jeong’s stupidity in the curious affair of him taking refuge in Damiwon in the middle of the night, we do have to be thankful that his actions here, did light the fire under So’s bottom and got him to react in a way that led Su to open up to him again. In this case, jealousy made him abandon his pride and face up to the woman he loved with his heart.

Ironically, Su romantically involves herself with two quite different men. One is overburdened with self-justification and the other refuses to even try and give an explanation because in his mind only a worthless man would try to excuse himself when he can’t give the woman he loves what she wants. Both loathe their powerlessness but they deal with it very differently.

It’s the main reason why So is such a wonderful character to me. In spite of the suffering he’s been through, he never positions himself as a victim even though he probably has more of a “right” to do so than anyone else. The world that he grew up in has never made it easy for him to claim his birthright but he lives large and without excuses. But that pride which keeps him standing tall has another side. It also operates as a defensive mechanism that keeps people at bay.

Watching this episode again I come away wondering why anyone would think that Su wasn’t in love with So. If anything, we see such a clear indication of the murmurs of her heart. It’s obvious to me not only that she loves him enough to put aside her revulsion to polygamy but also she wants him to know it in the clearest way possible. As long as he’s true to her, she will not change her mind about him.

I don’t think she ever doubts that he loves her. That’s never the issue. Note her first question to him when they have their confrontation that’s long overdue:

What’s the reason for suddenly getting married? Really, like what others are saying, is it greed for the throne that’s making you do this?

She’s enough of a realist to know that the marriage is most likely about political expediency.  At the back of her mind, she’s fully aware that the throne could come between them at anytime but her heart is constantly drawn towards him in spite of everything she knows about the future.

As she traces over his brush strokes, she grieves over what she thinks cannot be. For a moment, she had cast aside her own fears, given herself to the luxury of being in love. She had surrendered to her feelings in the simple hope that things would work out better than her visions and Lady O had portended.

This is how much she loves him… that she would set aside her own fear of the throne for his sake. Even when they make-up and kiss, the fight for the throne continues to loom large in the background but she now knows that she can’t continue in Goryeo without being by his side.

Incidentally I do love So’s writing. Although it isn’t as exquisite and elegant as Uk’s, there’s a wildness in the brush strokes that befits his personality. It stabs me in the heart every time that Su chose to model her Hanja handwriting after his especially knowing what comes later. It’s so gut-wrenching to think that even something as simple as that would be one of many barriers keeping them apart right to the bitter end.

Jeong, I will admit is no favourite of mine in this series. Maybe it’s the way he’s written… maybe it’s how he’s utilized as some kind of gap filler. But he’s a simple-minded fellow our 14^th Prince. It’s also this irrational prejudice that he has against So that boggles my mind. Some of it obviously comes from Mummy Dearest’s influence and some of it I suspect comes from So taking Su out of the palace at the end of Ep. 9 on a whim. I’m sure hanging out with Uk doesn’t help. However, it is instructive here how he is set up as a potential rival in love.

Still it irks me that he comes in late and takes refuge in Damiwon putting Su on the spot. I don’t even see the point of Jeong hiding from So even with a curfew. Why did he even bother coming back if he was already so late? Should have stayed on with Mummy Dearest and Brother Yo.

That’s why I say and keep saying that for a bunch of fellows who say that they love her, they seem rather inconsiderate of her position in the palace, the pressure she’s under and then to use her to mitigate their own issues (Eun, Jeong, Uk, Mu and even So). It’s one reason among others why she couldn’t love freely, with all these brothers making demands on her big-hearted disposition. Even with the best of intentions, they became a huge, ever-increasing burden on her fragile shoulders… all except Baek-A who understood her predicament best.

Su called herself a referee but what she was in actual fact… was the rope in a tug-of-war being pulled in multiple directions.


This retrospective is based on the SBS broadcast version. Subtitles for this episode can be found at Darksmurf Subs.

Moon Lovers Retrospective Ep. 13

This post contains spoilers pertaining to past, present and future episodes. Read at your own risk.

Although I never really bought into the Baek-A and U-Hui romance emotionally, narratively it operated as a metaphor for an evolving theme in this drama regarding the impossibility of love in the palace. It’s certainly one expression of that theme: Two people who should never have met, who should never have fallen in love and were probably doomed from the start. The gulf between them was too wide. There was too much baggage and to make things worse, the entire course of the relationship was clouded by secrets.

So what is it about the palace that makes it such a cesspit of toxic goo that makes it impossible for love to thrive there? As outsiders peering into that fishbowl of dysfunctionality, we watch with our romantic assumptions that love should be able to conquer all… we assume that if there’s enough love (whatever that means) between lovers, then matters should automatically iron themselves out because people who love much deserve (whatever that means) their happily-ever-after.

We may watch too, with our knowledge of fairytales and popular comedic tropes that “true love” should lead to a lifetime of bliss. But what if the opposite is equally true? What if true love doesn’t manifest itself in a happily-ever-after scenario but in heartache and sacrifice? Is their love invalidated by the sheer fact that the pairing cannot grow old together? Does love only result in favourable circumstances, or a state of mind, heart and will regardless of circumstances?

I am not aiming to provide all the answers here :D but they are questions worth considering at least in the context of the drama. For me it all boils down to assumptions.

The palace is a place where people live and interact. It is a space where people make choices about who they want to be and where they want to go. I picture a bustling marketplace but what’s on sale is power. Like every place where trading takes place, someone has something they want, someone makes an offer of a price and negotiation takes place. Everyone and everything has its price. To gain something is to lose something else. Love is no exception. In the right situation it’s an asset, in other situations, it becomes a liability. The game then is to know when it is one or the other.

Taejo is dying. The princes are gathering. The vultures are circling. The throne seems ripe for the taking. The man who built an empire has known for a while that his end is nigh. Lying on his deathbed, accompanied by two friends, all that preoccupies his mind is how transient life is. His impending death compels him to confront the uncertainty of the legacy he leaves behind. Faced with his mortality he wonders too if his life has been wisely spent.

It is wondrous irony that the King who lies in wait for his end is racked with doubt about the future while three of his sons are raring to wrestle the throne away from the Crown Prince. The man who created Goryeo’s throne is vulnerable and almost fearful because the power that was his will be out of his reach forever. The future is no longer his to command or protect. Almost to the bitter end, he is still grasping at every last detail, second-guessing his own decisions. Before he takes his last breath he pines for the only woman he's really loved.

Once again Su is caught in the middle of palace politics and intense sibling rivalries. I’m especially suspicious of the fact that it was Ji Mong who brought her back into the thick of things despite her reluctance to be involved. He could have really done it just because Su does have badass tea making skills that she inherited from Court Lady O. However, as he has a tendency of meddling selectively even when he admonishes others not to, I remain sceptical of his true motives.

On some level Su is tempted by So’s offer of marriage to leave the palace. For a woman who values love and relationships, it goes against the grain to take the plunge just to escape purgatory. I expect that she can’t be too averse to the man who makes the offer either. Whether she likes, loves or somewhere in between him, it must be somewhat flattering to be asked even if she feels the burden of having to make that kind of decision.

Then while she’s making tea for the dying king, he sends her off on a dangerous errand to make contact with the Crown Prince.

In the middle of limping towards her destination, she’s confronted by a thoroughly untrustworthy Uk who is fishing for information. Their conversation about throne grabbing is juxtaposed quite deliberately with the exchange between So and Yeon Hwa. The two women hold polar opposite views regarding the value of the throne. Su see it (understandably) as a death knell to everything especially relationships whereas Yeon Hwa believes that the person who sits in it, owns everything.

Yeon Hwa’s offer to So portends what is to come. A similar offer will be put to him again later but under quite different circumstances. The man who receives the offer on both occasions doesn’t really change his stance (at least willingly) although at this point he is unencumbered by political ambition. All he wants at this time is Su and he has enough nous to know that even if he is King with all the power that the position affords, it is no guarantee that she will give her heart to him even if he takes her forcibly. More importantly, the throne cannot give/buy him love. For him the throne is an object of scorn because his current goals don’t align with what it symbolizes. He’s right of course. When Taejo made the choice to prioritize the safety of the throne, he chose to give up the woman he loved.

Not surprisingly of course Uk is on the same page as Yeon Hwa. “If I must protect what I love, then I need to have the greatest power.”

This reverberating belief that taking the throne to bolster one’s power base is such a fixation with the Hwangbo siblings when they of all people should understand how erroneous that is. They should have remembered that Court Lady O fell victim to an orchestrated miscarriage despite the fact that the king loved her greatly (or because of it). As a result of this incident, their entire family was made scapegoat and sent into exile.

Perhaps the only lesson they took away from that incident was the power of the throne to affect lives but they failed to grasp the crucial bit where the king with all the power vested on him could not protect the woman he loved. If anything, it was probably that very same throne that caused the unborn child to die.

It has often been said that Yeon Hwa is a pragmatist and she’s a sharp operator trying to survive in an environment hostile to women. There’s no disputing that women get a raw deal here of course but as we’ll see it’s not exactly a friendly environment to men either, especially if one is a brother of the King and perceived as a potential threat. However, these days I see her largely as an “ambitious idealist”, which may sound like an oxymoron. Clearly, she idealizes the throne. It’s the Holy Grail of palace politics. Underpinning that is the belief that the one who takes hold of it, gains absolute power, thereby having it all. Revolutionaries are driven by a similar kind of single-minded idealism. It’s has a blinding effect. Also it’s how they can justify the destruction that they wreak along the way.

Su, I think, is more of a realist than she’s been given credit for. Even by me, I might add. Contrary to what most think, she does have a clear-eyed perspective on what the throne represents especially after losing Court Lady O so ruthlessly. In her eyes the throne means: death, corruption, betrayal and the loss of love. And she wants none of it. Family will end up doing things to each other that they would never otherwise. It helps, of course, that she’s an outsider that’s borne the brunt of all those consequences so she doesn’t have a starry-eyed view that throne power is a panacea to all of life’s ills.

It also takes a certain kind of courage not to succumb to conventional orthodoxy when everyone around you is marinated in it as if it’s the oxygen that they breathe. It may be easier to conform but if it means betraying one’s conscience and principles, it’s may be better to take chances on your own terms.

Ultimately her rejection of Uk comes from her own realization that he is on the path to self-destruction. Already she has witnessed the corruption of his soul as he blithely rationalizes about using her to kill a brother as par for the course -- a pattern that will continue until she leaves the palace. She’s well aware that none of it will end well and she just cannot be a part of that trajectory. For old times sake she sounds him out, giving him a chance to turn from the path he’s on but now that he’s had a taste for the sport, he is loathe to let it go. She is absolutely right when she says he is deceiving himself when he says he is doing it for her. He is doing it because ultimately it does satisfy an itch that he’s harboured for the longest time.

On the other hand, So kills his brother or thinks that he does at this point but Su’s not repulsed. While on the surface it seems like double standards, she recognizes that the difference lies in intent. So did not kill his brother to satisfy a bloodlust… he did it because it was ultimately about survival and it broke his heart that he had to. Uk although he didn’t ultimately kill anyone, was quite prepared to do so and turned against his co-conspirator far too easily and unconscionably.

At the risk of sounding fatalistic, it seems to me that Su and Uk were doomed from the start. Despite living in his residence for a time, she barely knew him. What she knew was the mask. To her he might have changed 180 degrees but the reality is that she fell in love with the side of him that he chose to show the world. He hid his darker impulses from her as he did from everyone else although from time to time they would leak through the façade. It is probably a credit to Lady Hae who acted a restraining force in his life for as a long as it did. Episode 11 opened Su’s eyes to what ambition for the throne does to human beings and now two episodes along, that reality continues to be played out in fairly logical fashion.

I also see a nice little foreshadowing too in their final exchange. Uk is clearly writhing in jealousy because he thinks Su is taking So’s side in the conflict because she has chosen him romantically. Then she says to him rather pointedly:

“Even for a moment, were you ever sure of my feelings for you? Have you ever completely… trusted me?”
In response he says to her, “I will make you come back to me”.
“It will not be easy.”

I can’t help but see an important parallel with what comes later. The questions are never repeated verbatim but the sentiments are echoed in that scene. It is what I call, the curse of the reverse harem. It’s precisely as Lady O predicted. She would be caught between the princes and it would ultimately become her undoing. It strikes me hard that both men expect and demand complete devotion but they fail to understand that the very thing that makes her special… the very quality that they fell for… is the very thing they (and much of the audience) wants her to jettison.

Taejo dies and the reactions of his wives and children are the key thing here. The late, great king shuffling off his mortal coil was just a man in the end… with all the foibles of humanity on his shoulders.  To some he was a rival, an obstacle, someone whose loftiness was their ambition. To others he was a father who couldn’t be free to be one. Even though he would be known as the Sage King who founded a dynasty, he couldn’t be the father or husband his family probably needed him to be.

It’s the refrain of the drama playing in the background… No one… not even the king… can have everything.


This retrospective is based on the SBS broadcast version. Subtitles for this episode can be found at Darksmurf Subs.

Moon Lovers Retrospective Ep. 12

This post contains spoilers about episodes before and after.

I was going to put 12 and 13 together but after re-watching 12 I thought better of it. There's just too much going on in one episode.

It seems to baffle many that Hae Su would even consider rejecting So out of hand after all his incredible declarations of steadfastness and love from the previous episode. There’s an underlying assumption I imagine that she’s an empty headed candy girl who is incapable of recognize the quality of the man under her nose and that she’s somehow a first class idiot to hold lingering feelings for the coward that walked away from her. According to this line of thought, it’s supposed to be easy for someone who has experienced brutality of how the palace troubleshoots to plunge from one relationship to another with relative ease. Perhaps I’m caricaturing things a tad but that’s the logic I’m left with.

So is an easy character to love. Much of our sympathies in this drama lies with him. Although he may be abrupt at times, clumsy with his words, he is a man of action through and through. It’s an attractive quality but it shouldn’t mean that a woman should be obliged to throw her lot in with him after experiencing ten degrees of trauma.

Su’s rejection of So at this point is much bigger than the man himself. It’s a general repudiation of what the palace is and all that it stands for. She wants to forget it all. Someone she cared about, someone who was a mentor and mother-figure to her made the ultimate sacrifice for her. It’s hardly surprising then that she wants to forget it all and put it all behind her. She is quite aware too that So has had to give up his freedom and his desire to live in the palace because of her. More than that, however, she knows herself that getting involved with So is political dynamite and the safest cause of action is to stay away. It’s a view seemingly shared by the King who sends her off to the far ends of the palace to be a water maid at the Gyobang.

I think it’s important from time to time to stand back from the romance in this show and look at the show from the point of view of politics. The obstacles exist not just for storytelling purposes but because it’s been established that they exist because of the cultural context they're located in.

We receive confirmation in Ep. 20 of course that she’s liked him for a very long time so it wasn’t the lack of liking that held her back for as long as it did.

I think it’s much clearer to me this time round that in essence So and Uk want the same thing. They both want the girl but the way they choose to get there is quite different. Uk acts out of his own sense of powerlessness but So acts out of his own sense of liberty. Certainly they are both powerless in the sense that they are subject to the whims of others… Uk with the demands of family, So with his parents but So never allows the external restrictions to override his internal sense of self. Circumstances don’t determine who he is and he seldom feels the need to play the victim card. When Su fobs him off, he’s not deterred but tacitly acknowledges that she needs time to recover from recent tragedy and attempts to strike a bargain with the King for her freedom.

Uk does what he does because he sees himself as the perpetual victim. Even when he finally makes the effort to secretly see Su (after some pushing by Jeong), it’s all about him. It’s about his feeling powerless, about him feeling guilty and bad that she’s in the state that she’s in. We get the usual dose of “I, I, I… excuses, excuses, excuses.”

It’s amusing that in one scene Uk tells Jeong that no one can go against the King if they want to survive in the palace but then So does exactly that when he returns from being an envoy and gets away with it. In fact, much to General Pak’s surprise, he earns his father’s pride and respect for doing so.

Uk craves safety and legitimacy within the status quo. It never seems to occur to him that he can rewrite the rules. He wants to have Su in relative safety. He wants the throne without getting his hands dirty. The brilliant line “the traitor that kills the traitor is a hero” uttered by him encapsulates the way he thinks perfectly. That’s why in almost every instance he’s left watching in the sidelines and playing second fiddle to just about all his siblings despite purportedly being the smartest and most accomplished one. I have no doubt his upbringing has played a large part in that. I can well imagine the tension of wanting to do illegitimate things while maintaining the veneer of being blameless.

Sadly I reached the limits of my patience for Uk in this episode. Despite his less than commendable actions in the previous episode, it was still possible on some level to sympathize with the kind of untenable position he was in and why he made the choices that he did. At the very least he had enough decency left to be embarrassed about his own incompetence. But at this point, I directed a rare outburst at my iPad followed by an uncontrollable urge to throttle him.

Clearly he was provoked by jealousy and fear when he accused So of putting Su in the position she’s in but in the final analysis he’s the guy with the big picture. He had all the pieces of the puzzle in his grasp. He knew exactly who pulled the strings and the rationale for it. This knowledge could have saved a lot of lives. Furthermore, this was one of those rare occasions that he did have real power in his hands because he had quite literally, all the evidence at his fingertips. His refusal here to take responsibility for any of it is no doubt posturing. Still, to blame So who was largely a pawn in this situation… that boy Uk is just asking to be hated. I’m in no doubt that it was also Trash Talking 101… to verbally excoriate one’s adversary when his morale must be at its lowest. With no leg to stand on for his own craven behaviour, tactically he had to stoop this low. But of course, So is riding on a wave of confidence. After all, he’s taken the King down a peg or two, how hard can a weasel brother be? Even if So doesn’t have all the facts, he knows that 1) Uk could have done a lot more and 2) Uk turned his back on Su. He hits bullseye when he tells Uk that he should turn just his back on Su just as he always has. Ouch!

Yeah, people who live in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones.

There’s a part of me that’s screaming out to Su, “Run away!” when Uk finally condescends to pay a visit and prattle off his excuses. If it had been me, I’d have chucked some laundry in his face and stormed off to my sleeping quarters. But Su’s nicer than I am and I didn’t have the misfortune of falling in love with Uk. When she sliced through his weasely incoherent rambling with “Did you miss me?” it indicated her need for closure. She did need to know if he genuinely loved her for her own mental health. Even if that relationship couldn’t withstand the onslaught of a full-blown political fracas, she needed the assurance at least that it wasn’t some big con job or elaborate lie. I can’t really fault her for this. She had emotionally invested herself in this relationship and she had to know it hadn't been just talk on his part.

I find Su’s strength of character really shining through here. She’s wounded, frail and world-weary and yet she’s the one who looks at him squarely in the eye and zeroes in on that question. The only question that matters to her: Did you miss me?

He is forced to abandon his excuses albeit momentarily. That of course, means he needs to take cover as his own inadequacies are stripped bare. The lack of power, he says, is the problem and when he gets it… things will get better. She looks at him asking him not to bother because she knows precisely what that means. Now the richness of that ambiguity is interesting. Did she mean that she now knows what the price of trying to love a prince is? Or did she mean that she now knows that he’s someone who bends to whatever the prevailing wind might be? Interesting.

I used to think that So and Uk were set up as contrastive figures to demonstrate who the better man was. But I labored under the misapprehension that it was about who was the better man for Su as I had mistakenly assumed that romance was the key thing and the game of thrones was the backdrop. But by Ep 17 we know that’s definitely not the case at all. In actual fact throne politics has always been the main thing and the romance was the interloper. From everything she said in the voice over, Su was quite clear on that that when sending him off at their favourite hang-out. She rejected him because she knew that getting involved with him would ultimately end in tears. To put it simply, her head’s telling her that getting romantically involved with the future Gwangjong would be disaster (just as Court Lady O had warned) but her heart is nudging her in a different direction.

Like most, I was blinded by So’s earnestness and persistence in his pursuit of Su that I blissfully glossed over the ramifications. Like thousands of women who were watching this, I fell in love with So and his epic love. Su did too, long before she became head of Damiwon but she strenuously fought it because she had an inkling of what the long-term consequences would be based on her experience with Uk and Lady O’s warnings.

Therefore, I’ve come around to the idea that both men are equally problematic for Su not because of who they are per se but where they’re positioned in this battle for the throne. Loving Su is easy but hanging on to her is the tricky part. Neither of them can really give her what she wants as a 21^st century woman because she really doesn’t belong in this world. (“I can’t marry just to leave the palace”)

So’s trajectory is different to Uk’s because he starts off being disinterested in the throne but if known history is to run its course, the ambition must emerge at some point. While he is free from ambition and out of the game, he is free to shower her with all the attention in the world, to make her his priority. Uk can’t give her priority as his heart pulls him in different directions and he thinks that gaining the throne will allow him to have it all: security, love, choices etc. However we are also witnessing the darkening of his soul in the interim. Also, it’s an unknown at this point what So will end up being once the ambition for the throne stirs within him.

What is known, however, is that So doesn’t bend easily to the will of others or to circumstances. It’s a great asset when he’s wooing a reluctant party and protecting the woman he loves but it can be a serious handicap politically. Determination and stubbornness are two sides of the same coin.

Rationally, Su is right to fend off So’s overtures even if he says the most ridiculous things to make her waver. But then a dying Taejo tells her this:

“Don’t be so obsessed with the future as to lose what you have now.”

It almost sounds like he’s giving her permission to stay by So’s side! No wonder the poor girl is confused about what she should be doing. One person tells her to stay alert and tread carefully like she’s walking on ice, the other is saying… don’t worry and just go with the flow.

Here’s what I think is going on: Taejo knows that she’s special and credits her with So’s recent burst of confidence. Moreover, Taejo believes that her presence is somehow needed somehow for the throne fight. How much her involvement will affect the unfolding of events is unclear but he has accepted the fact that she will at the very least need to witness what’s to come. Obviously he wants So to fulfill his destiny and he has some idea that she might be the variable to make it so.

When Yeon Hwa says that she loves So, I believe her. In so far as it is something removed from her usual need to manipulate people and circumstances. On paper, they would be a good match if both had equal amounts of ambition. But So craves love and understanding above all else and YH can’t speak to that part of his soul because she’s all about maintaining strength and using people’s weaknesses.

The stage is being set. The players have taken their places. The game is about to begin. Will Su merely be a bystander or will she be caught up in it even if she attempts to distance herself from all of it?

This retrospective is based on the SBS broadcast version. Subtitles for this episode can be found at Darksmurf Subs.