Friday, October 19, 2012

The Great Seer Episode 3

Kids, don't drink. It's bad for you. It's especially bad for you the next morning. I speak from experience.
 
 
Young Ji silently gives birth to her son. She quickly memorizes his features, stuffs a large gold ring in his swaddling, and hands him off to a servant girl. By the time her husband, Lee In Im, bursts into the room, Young Ji is quietly working at her embroidery as the servant girl slips out of the room with a basket of material. Young Ji claims she is just now starting her contractions and asks for In Im to leave. He's about to obey her wishes but at the last second something makes him suspicious. He comes back into the room, flings up his wife's skirts and sees the blood on her petticoat. He orders Right Hand Man to catch the servant that just left.
 
Right Hand Man and his men run out into the courtyard just in time to see the servant girl pass off the basket to Dong Yoon. A long chase scene ensues (perhaps too long) before Right Hand Man finally catches up to the one-eyed man. Dong Yoon throws the basket at Right Hand Man and makes his escape. Right Hand Man checks the contents of the basket and, just as I suspected, it was all a ruse as an indignant cat emerges from the material. As the defeated soldier returns to In Im's home, he doesn't pay any attention to Hyo Myung walking past with a basket on his back. (Remember, Hyo Myung is the doctor from the last episode and a friend of Dong Yoon.)
 
Just as In Im is executing the servant girl in the courtyard, his mistress (who is Soo Ryun Gae. There, finally got her name) comes by with their newborn son. She expects the princess to take the baby in and raise him as her own. As expected, Ryun Gae reminds Young Ji of her debt. It's time to pay up. Just to add a little more incentive to the deal, Ryun Gae explains that if Young Ji doesn't take the baby in, then Ryun Gae will just have to kill him as head priestesses can't have babies under penalty of death. After a long battle of wills (perhaps too long), the mother in Young Ji can't deny the baby any longer and takes him in.
 
Time skip ahead ten years to 1362. In Im and his troops are preparing to attack the city of Gaegyoung. Yet once they get to the gates of the city, they discover the town has already been taken over. General Lee Sung Gye (minus the baboon hat and makeup) beat In Im to the punch. Oh, this must be when the Red Turbans were causing so much trouble for King Kongmin. That poor king, he's got a lot on his plate. Trying to become independent from the Chinese empire; Red Turbans running around; Japanese pirates harassing the kingdom's shores. Kongmin is feeling the weight of it all.
 
Still, he has time enough to reward his generals. For the taking of Gaegyoung, Kongmin heaps rewards upon the head general, Choi Young (played by Lee Min Ho, once he gets to looking like Son Byung Ho) and... In Im. Lee Sung Gye, who is standing nearby, ain't too happy not to hear his name included. All he gets for his troubles is being made governor of some podunk province. Nope, not happy at all.
 
Another time skip, this time just a year, to 1363. Dong Yoon and Young Ji's son, Ji Sang (played right now by Lee David) has been called to a giseang house. One of the ladies has lost the key to her jewelry box and Ji Sang has the lock picking skills to get it back open. He also does a little divination/weather forecasting for the ladies, warning they're not going to have a good night for business as it's going to rain.
 
Meanwhile, Young Ji is meeting with a young girl, Hae In, and discussing teas. Young Ji is taking the girl under her wing and training her in astrology. Crushing on the girl is the son of the house, Jung Geun (played at the moment by No Young Hak, who played the teenage King Euija from Gyebaek. He's good at playing goofy. You know, it's rather telling that I can recognize all these Korean actors, yet I can't name a one of those dang Kardashians. Well, except for that girl with the huge butt. And another thing: the actress playing Young Ji looks just a few years older than her "son". And another thing after that: both Jung Geun and Ji Sang are chronological supposed to be around eleven or twelve years old when the actors look like they're hitting their early twenties. /rantoff)
 
Anyway, back to the story. That Lee Ga No is still hanging around trying to start trouble. And he still has that awful haircut. He tells his co-hort, Ryun Gae, that he wants to meet with In Im. The head priestess and In Im are still having hot and spicy times together. Ryun Gae relays Ga No's message and is surprised when In Im refuses. If they want to kill King Kongmin, he won't interfere, but he won't help, either.
 
Ji Sang is working with the peddler, Jong Dae (played by Lee Moon Shik. See, I told you we were going to have a Great Queen Seondeok reunion.) Jong Dae has some contraband from China he needs to get into the city. He hands the thing over to Ji Sang to somehow get it inside Gaegyoung. As pedestrians line up outside the city gate to be inspected, Ji Sang slips the contraband into the pack of a girl standing in front of him. When questioned by the gate soldier, the girl explains she's bringing back the bones and ashes of her mother, who was born in Gaegyoung. Not wanting to touch anything so icky, the soldier lightly inspects her and waves her through.
 
Inside the city we see the person expecting the package is Jung Geun. He anxiously waits with Jong Dae when Ji Sang walks by. With the pair distracting him, Ji Sang looses sight of the girl, so all three of them race around the city trying to find her.
 
Lee Ga No finally gets In Im to agree to secretly see him. In Im still refuses to be involved in the assassination. Ga No divulges that he knows In Im's wife, Young Ji, gave the king a false Ja Mi Won. If the king were ever to learn of this treachery, Young Ji would be executed. So In Im is given a choice: if he chooses his king, his wife dies. If he chooses his wife, the king dies.
 
The three amigos finally find the right girl in the crowd. Jong Dae rudely tears the pack off her back, causing the mother's ashes and bones to be spilled in the dirt. The girl says something in Chinese which is overheard by some soldiers. They accuse her of being a runaway slave and drag her off. Jong Dae finds the package and hands it over to Jung Geun, while Ji Sang feels just awful about what happened to the innocent young girl.
 
In Im returns home to see Young Ji teaching Hae In. He stares at her a bit and makes his decision as he tells Right Hand Man to gather his best men for a mission tonight.

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