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The Matchmakers: Episode 7
by Unit
Our ever-growing matchmaking crew assembles to put some pesky rumors to rest — and fan the flames of love while they’re at it. And not to be left out of the plotting, our villains also assemble to set their sinister plans in motion.
EPISODE 7
When Jung-woo wakes up from last week’s fainting spell, he comes to the conclusion the rest of us have since arrived at: his chest pain is activated by the sight of young couples. Like the Confucian scholar he is, Jung-woo orders Soon-gu and Sam-soon to sit apart from each other because it is morally unacceptable for single men and women to be that close. But Sam-soon points out that Jung-woo’s chest pain has nothing to do with morals, and everything to do with jealousy because he has no experience with women — and he’ll likely never have any. LMAO! Drag him by his celibate robe!
Sam-soon’s laughter is contagious, and I’m right there giggling with her as Jung-woo writhes in pain (and subsequently passes out again) while she’s all pumped up at the news that Soon-gu is single. Lol. Back to the main reason our crew is gathered, Soon-gu reveals that Minister Park killed the late spinster. And to clear Ha-na’s name, Sam-soon (Hwa-rok) is tasked with coming up with a story about the murder.
Sam-soon might have switched to the murder mystery genre in her writing, but she’s still in need of romance in her life. Hence, she straight up asks Soon-deok to set her up with Soon-gu. Soon-deok is reluctant to proceed with the match, and for a second, I thought she was being biased because it was her brother in question. But it’s precisely because Soon-gu is her brother that Soon-deok knows that he decided never to marry. In the end, Sam-soon’s persistence wins, and Soon-deok agrees to match them because she also wants her stubborn brother to get married.
When Sam-soon is done with the story, the crew gathers again. But rather than focus on duplicating the novel into multiple copies for sale, they invent new ways to flirt. Things are mutual between Sam-soon and Soon-gu, but Soon-deok stonewalls all Jung-woo’s attempts to be close — and he ends up thinking she is avoiding him because she’s a peddler and he’s of royal status. “How do I explain that I’m open when it comes to that matter?” he wonders. “I have no prejudice about social class.” Since when? Jung-woo, please!
Our OTP eventually gets some alone time, and Jung-woo asks for Soon-deok’s real name. She’s touched because no one has asked for her name since she became a peddler, and she reveals that she is Soon-deok. She’s also two years older than him, and yay for a noona romance!
Soon-deok knows Jung-woo’s age because everyone knows everything about the king’s son-in-law. And in the same vein, Jung-woo says he wishes to know everything about her. A tender moment passes between them, but Soon-deok snaps them back to reality. What’s the point of knowing everything about her when they’ll never see each other after the matchmaking project is over.
In between the matchmaking project, the crown prince is called back into the palace “on orders of the queen,” but he’s smart enough to realize midway through the journey that something is wrong. He tricks the guards and escapes into the mountains to hide, and when Ha-na happens upon the “lost kid” in the mountains, she helps to divert the guards’ attention. Ha-na also ends up “taking responsibility” for the crown prince by allowing him to spend the night at the Maeng house.
On hearing the news that the crown prince is missing, the king orders the soldiers to begin a search at once. But Ha-na beats them to it and brings the crown prince back to the private residence in one piece. The queen is on hand to receive them, and she’s grateful to Ha-na — who doesn’t recognize the crown prince nor the queen as royalty because they’re not dressed in official robes. On the off chance that she might be helping a traitor, Ha-na asks the queen who they are, but the queen makes up an excuse and Ha-na remains none the wiser.
In the meantime, Lady Park tells her husband to mobilize his private army. If the king orders an investigation into the kidnapping of the crown prince, they’ll have a justification to depose the queen by bringing up the fact that she secretly sent the crown prince to a private residence. With the queen deposed, there’ll be no one to protect the crown prince, and it’s a win-win situation for the faction.
Back to our matchmaking crew, they hold a private reading of the novel to a select group of respected women, and Jung-woo — who pretends to be Hwa-rok for the reading — clearly states that the story is based on true events. The story spreads like wildfire, and everyone pieces the clues together. Soon Minister Park faces public condemnation, and Ha-na’s rumor is put to rest.
Public condemnation is not good enough punishment for Minister Park, but Sam-soon is reluctant to take things further for fear that Soon-gu could get in trouble for telling them the truth about the murder. Awwn. Soon-deok tells the crew to leave Minister Park’s punishment to her, and she has Ye-jin show her mother the novel. Lady Park dismisses the story as a rumor, but Ye-jin tells her that she witnessed Minister Park dragging the spinster into his room on the day the lady went missing. Lady Park is outraged, and she orders her brother to step down from his position immediately.
What an interesting character Lady Park is. She doesn’t mind killing the competition to make her nephew the crown prince, but she won’t allow her brother go unpunished after killing an innocent woman. She’s all for the dignity of a noblewoman, but she says nothing when she discovers that Soon-deok sneaks out of the house. She also doesn’t seem to be faking the affection she has for Soon-deok. Lady Park is not your average one-dimensional villainess, that’s for sure.
An angry Minister Park begins investigating how Hwa-rok knew what transpired that night, but our crew is a step ahead with Soon-deok’s plan for Soon-gu to chase Hwa-rok up to a cliff — where she’ll jump from and “die.” Soon-gu refuses to put Sam-soon in harm’s way, and Soon-deok says not to worry because she’ll be disguised as Hwa-rok. She must really have a thing for impersonating others. Heh. As expected, Jung-woo is NOT a fan of Soon-deok’s plan because what if she gets hurt instead? “Gosh, everyone except me is looking out for their love,” Jung-woo’s servant sighs at the back and forth, and lol.
The plan is eventually set in motion, and a masked Hwa-rok is about to jump when Minister Park comes out from nowhere and fires an arrow at Hwa-rok. That bastard! Hwa-rok jumps anyway, and when the mask comes off, he is revealed to be Jung-woo! Not that I’m surprised. As Jung-woo sinks into the river, he thinks to himself: “Looking back, I had already made up my mind then to marry Lady Yeo-ju.” And this is the illegal cliffhanger with which we end the episode. Ugh! Of all the times for KBS to air a single episode, it had to be this week!
Still, the plot is progressing, our favorite couples are running full steam on the romance front, and I’m a happy viewer. One thing I noticed with last week’s lantern festival and this week at the matchmaking den is that the characters can spend an extended period of time at a single location, and I won’t be bored! The writing is entertaining, the characters are quirky, and as a whole, the visuals are so appealing. Overall, it’s been so far, so fun with the first half of the show and I hope the other half stays that way.
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