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Captivating the King: Episodes 5-6
by mistyisles
Let the games begin! Back in each other’s orbits, our leads spin tight webs around each other while delicately navigating those spun by their mutual enemies. But when everyone’s playing 20 steps ahead of everyone else, the lines between ally and enemy become blurry indeed.
EPISODES 5-6
Three years have passed since Lee In became king and Hee-soo escaped. After plunging down a waterfall and being presumed dead, Hee-soo was rescued by her old servants and reunited with CHU DAL-HA (Na Hyun-woo), the spy whose commission and capture triggered the whole debacle in the first place. Dal-ha lost an eye via torture, and he was in love with the late Hong-jang, so for the past three years, he and Hee-soo have been plotting revenge together. They even have a few palace contacts, including PRINCE DEOK-SEONG (Sohn Jong-hak), who’s privileged enough to play baduk with Lee In himself.
Except, Lee In knows Prince Deok-seong is backed by his uncle, Lord Park, and thereby also the QUEEN DOWAGER (Jang Young-nam). After Prince Deok-seong makes the mistake of remarking that Qing’s Prince Rui has stepped aside to let his nephew assume the throne (i.e., he did the opposite of what Lee In did), he gets *mysteriously* murdered. Lee In subsequently warns Lord Park not to plant anyone else in his inner circle.
Lord Park and his associates have also been trying to get Myung-ha strung up on various charges of incompetence over the years. They finally convince Lee In to summon him to the palace, but instead of risking yet another failed accusation, Lee In appoints Myung-ha Sixth Royal Secretary. This position has a singular duty: revive the dying peach tree the former king planted while Lee In was in captivity. Many previous sixth secretaries have failed, and Myung-ha will face grave consequences if he can’t save the tree, either.
Finally, Lee In invents a new palace position, which he calls a gidaeryeong. More than a teacher, this person will serve as his personal baduk partner. Thus, they’re selected through a baduk tournament. Seeing Mong-woo’s name on the list of first-day winners, Lee In tries to convince himself it can’t possibly be the Mong-woo he knew. But curiosity wins out, and he attends the second day to see for himself.
Only a few finalists remain, and by chance, Hee-soo ends up without a partner for the next round. Normally, this would be counted as an automatic advancement, but Lee In orders her to play against the only other eligible person present: Myung-ha, who has yet to officially assume his new position. Though both Hee-soo and Lee In are visibly shaken by the other’s presence, she tamps down her nerves and wins the game. When Lee In pointedly observes that Myung-ha would have won had he sacrificed a particular stone, Hee-soo disagrees. Just as pointedly, she says there’s always a way to save a cornered stone if you look hard enough — Myung-ha’s fatal mistake here was giving up on the stone too soon. And so was Lee In’s, being the clear implication.
The guards threaten to cut out her tongue for insolence, but Hee-soo doubles down. Baduk is a conversation between equals, so if Lee In is going to punish people for challenging him verbally, he’ll need a new gidaeryeong every time he plays. Both insulted and impressed by her sheer audacity, Lee In lets her keep her tongue — provided she wins and becomes gidaeryeong. And that’s exactly what she does.
If the tension between them was thick before, it’s practically suffocating once they’re alone. Having guessed that the “cornered stone” was Hong-jang, Lee In explicitly accuses Mong-woo of plotting revenge. Hee-soo denies it, so he leaves her with a warning: he killed Mong-woo once, and he’ll do it again if he catches her deceiving him or making alliances with other members of the court. But since Mong-woo only plays baduk when a bet is involved, he agrees to grant her one request if she wins. Given the stakes and their respective skills, however, that first day ends in a draw.
In the meantime, Hee-soo approaches Myung-ha. She says, rightly, that he should beg her for forgiveness, but he refuses to apologize for doing what he believed he had to. Instead of getting angry, Hee-soo tries to recruit him to her and Dal-ha’s revenge force, figuring such brazenness means he’ll have no qualms going up against the king. Myung-ha turns her down, so she promises to prove her capability by helping him meet his cousins, the children of the former king.
As Lee In predicted, it’s not long before the queen dowager extends an offer to Mong-woo. She does so discretely, using Lee In’s frail, neglected queen (Ha Seo-yoon) as a shield in case Lee In gets wind of the meeting (which he does). Instead of being played, however, Hee-soo manipulates the scene to look like the queen wanted her to tutor Lee In’s nephew in baduk. Thus, Hee-soo gets out of accepting the queen dowager’s proposal, and the poor queen isn’t punished for being a powerless pawn. (Plus, it gives Hee-soo the perfect opportunity to arrange that meeting between Myung-ha and his cousins.)
Lee In sees through Mong-woo’s ploy. But since he’s the one who ordered her not to accept his mother’s patronage, he can’t fault her for it. Nor can he hide that he’s touched that his nephew wants to learn baduk. So he promises to protect Mong-woo — his person, he calls her — from his mother’s wrath that’s sure to come. Now he’s anxious to play baduk with her again, but by the time he clears an afternoon to do so, she’s convinced Myung-ha to join her plot. Lee In arrives just in time to see the two embracing, and he’s too far away to see the coldness in Hee-soo’s eyes.
My goodness, these two and their feelings for each other are so deliciously tangled. They see right through each other, and yet they still manage to one-up each other at every turn. Alongside the obvious animosity, I think they’re also both angry at themselves for how things ended three years ago — her for trusting him and him for betraying her and Hong-jang — even though they’d likely make the same choices given the chance to go back and try again. Meanwhile, he’s already fully admitted he craves the way her presence helps him tune out the world and its troubles, and I suspect she’s still searching for glimpses of her old hero in him, at least subconsciously. And just imagine how much more complicated those feelings will get once he finds out she’s a woman — and Lord Kang’s daughter, no less!
I also really liked the moment of solidarity between Mong-woo and the queen, and I hope they remain on relatively good terms as long as possible. Though, again, Lee In finding out Hee-soo’s identity and potentially falling deeper in love with her will most certainly complicate everything. In the best and worst ways all at once.
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