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Captivating the King: Episodes 3-4
by mistyisles
We knew this time would come, but boy does it hit hard. Our heroes — and, to be fair, their enemies in turn — suffer one terrible blow after another. By the end of these two episodes, our characters, their relationships, and the kingdom they call home have all been changed forever.
EPISODES 3-4
The long-awaited mongwoo arrives, but Myung-ha interrupts Hee-soo and Jin-han’s meeting. Myung-ha claims “Mong-woo” (the only name by which Jin-han knows Hee-soo, whom he still believes to be a man) promised to play baduk with him today, and since he’s holding her secret over her, Hee-soo can’t contradict him. Jin-han can tell something’s off, but takes Mong-woo’s word for it and leaves, more than a little jealous that Myung-ha knows more about Mong-woo than he does.
Myung-ha scolds Hee-soo for risking her and her father’s safety, wondering aloud if she rejected him because she likes Jin-han better. Hee-soo sets the record straight — her dislike for Myung-ha is his own fault. But Myung-ha holds all the leverage here. He threatens to out her to her father if she continues the Mong-woo masquerade. Then he tells Jin-han that Mong-woo had to leave urgently and indefinitely.
While the three stew over what just went down, a political crisis sets off a devastating chain of events. Against Lord Kang’s advice, the king previously sent a spy to Ming to reassure them Joseon was only complying with Qing demands under compulsion. But the spy has been caught, and the only way to placate Qing’s enraged rulers is to surrender the person who commissioned him. The king may have given the order, but Lord Kang carried it out, so he volunteers to surrender himself and bear the punishment on the king’s behalf. Both the king and Jin-han try to talk him out of it. But there isn’t any better option, so Lord Kang is carted away in disgrace — even though pretty much everyone knows he’s innocent.
Hyun-bo seizes the perfect opportunity to get revenge on Mong-woo and Hong-jang (the latter of whom is his own sister, by the way). He presents select facts — the spy and Jin-han visited Hong-jang’s gibang around the same time — and lets Minister Kim draw the obvious but incorrect conclusion. (The actual connection is that the spy assisted Hee-soo in repatriating captives, but this goes undiscovered for now.)
Minister Kim rounds up Hong-jang and a bunch of baduk players and tortures them for information on Mong-woo. When Hee-soo gets wind of it, she runs straight over as Mong-woo, intending to prove the others’ innocence. So, naturally, Minister Kim orders she be tortured into testifying against Jin-han. They’re interrupted by Jin-han himself, but Minister Kim has the king’s approval, so the best Jin-han can do in the moment is delay the torture while he talks to the king. As he leaves, he promises to save Mong-woo.
By now, Minister Kim has convinced the king that Jin-han and Lord Kang conspired to deceive and overthrow him. When the king comes at him with a sword, Jin-han wrests it away and turns it back on him. He only does it in self-defense and swears he’s never plotted treason, but raising a weapon against the king kind of nullifies that claim. So he drops to his knees and appeals to their brotherhood — surely there must be some way to prove his devotion. But the king only wants Jin-han dead. Also, he never loved Jin-han; he only pretended to so their mother wouldn’t deny him the throne. Or so he claims.
Crushed, Jin-han agrees to let the king kill him. But just as the king raises the sword again, he collapses, vomiting blood. He’s been poisoned. As he dies in Jin-han’s arms, he calls Jin-han his brother once more and gives three commands: 1) find and punish his murderer, 2) help his son ascend the throne, and 3) trust no one. But when Jin-han relays the king’s last words to the court, he amends them: “The king entrusted me with the nation’s future.” Still, he adds (sincerely) that if even one person disapproves, he won’t ascend the throne.
Minister Kim makes it very clear he disapproves, but he knows Jin-han will have anticipated that, so he and Hyun-bo return to their original plan of coercing Mong-woo to name Jin-han as the traitor behind the spy. Myung-ha convinces them to let him handle it, and when Hee-soo refuses to give a false testimony, he writes one for her. Minister Kim smugly calls an assembly to confront Jin-han, only to watch the whole plot fall apart when Hyun-bo turns sides and testifies that Minister Kim’s accusation is false. Jin-han gives Minister Kim one chance to confess and be pardoned. Minister Kim refuses, and Jin-han kills him right then and there.
And that’s how Grand Prince Jin-han becomes KING LEE IN. He spares Myung-ha’s life at the queen’s request, but sends him to work far away. In a cruel bit of irony, Myung-ha’s choice to forge Mong-woo’s confession has doomed Hee-soo, as she and the other prisoners are now accused of conspiring with Minister Kim to bring Lee In down. Either Lee In believes this is true, or he lets himself believe it so he can do what has to be done — either way, he leaves the prisoners’ fate to the judges to decide, ignoring Hee-soo’s plea to at least pardon the severely beaten Hong-jang. They’re sentenced to three years of hard labor and exile, and Hong-jang passes in her sleep while they’re en route.
As soon as she can, Hee-soo escapes. But she can’t outrun the guards, who strike her across the back with a sword and send her tumbling down a waterfall. She survives, barely. Remembering Lee In’s words about watching his fellow captives suffer in Qing, she vows to make sure he never forgets the stench of innocent blood.
Three years later, Lee In is a sad, lonely king with a reputation for reveling in debauchery. He’s tired of playing baduk alone, so he asks for a baduk teacher — anyone can apply, as long as they aren’t already a public official. And guess who shows up to try for the job? That’s right: Mong-woo.
Oof. First of all, Jo Jung-seok and Choi Dae-hoon killed me (no pun intended) with that final confrontation scene of theirs. Second, I kept trying to guess what disaster might turn our leads against each other, but I really didn’t expect it to be like this. Lee In’s descent into ruthlessness was as heartbreaking as it was swift. And while I can’t say I wasn’t low-key impressed that he actually killed Minister Kim, it hurt to see him turn so cold and break his own heart in the process.
Shout out to Myung-ha, though, for so spectacularly shooting himself in the foot. Not only did he, as Hee-soo herself put it, prove she was right to dislike him from the start, but he also got her branded a criminal and, to top it off, helped get his father killed. I’m sure he’ll be back to wreak more havoc later, but amidst all the heaviness this week — and aside from the horrific impact his failure had on Hong-jang and Hee-soo — it was at least a tiny bit satisfying to watch his meddling blow up in his face.
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