“My Dearest” received a one-episode extension this week, stretching the narrative so as to add loads of turmoil as we head into the ultimate stretch. Lee Jang Hyun (Namgoong Min) and Yoo Gil Chae (Ahn Eun Jin) have by no means been happier collectively, however issues are getting worse and worse for them politically with a totally insane King Injo (Kim Jong Tae) on the unfastened and his scheming concubine Jo (So Yu Jin) able to kill everybody in her path. Right here’s every little thing that spells doom for this beloved couple, whilst they struggle their finest to climate the intense storms coming their method.
Warning: spoilers for episodes 18-19 beneath.
1. The king’s homicide of the captives
Ascending the throne through a coup means you may lose it through the identical, and King Injo is painfully conscious of this reality. The difficulty is that he’s underneath the assumption that his son, Crown Prince So Hyun (Kim Moo Joon), is gunning for his seat. Prince So Hyun tearfully tries to persuade him that this isn’t true, however Injo isn’t listening to it and refuses to permit the captives who’ve been farming so arduous for the prince to return to Joseon. The prince is devastated at being unable to maintain his promise, and Jang Hyun loses all religion within the prince upon listening to that he received’t maintain his phrase.
He tries to deliver again the captives anyway with Ryang Eum (Kim Yoon Woo) and Goo Jam’s (Park Kang Sub’s) help, with Goo Yang Chun (Choi Moo Sung) main them throughout the river onto Joseon land. Solely, they’re surrounded by the king’s males and slaughtered. Jang Hyun fights again in shock on the king’s cruelty, however he’s knocked out, captured, and tortured on the palace. The captives loyally keep on with Jang Hyun’s story that he’s Yang Chun as a result of revealing his id signifies that the king would have instantly linked Jang Hyun to the prince and would have accused the prince of treason as a result of his captives dared to struggle again as a substitute of simply sitting and being killed. However the captives which are introduced in with Jang Hyun are all murdered. And those that flee again throughout the river to the Qing empire (as a result of the invaders at the moment are safer than their very own nation) meet a very pissed off Gak Hwa (Lee Chung Ah).
2. Lee Jang Hyun’s promise to Gak Hwa
This was a horrible thought final week, and it’s come proper again to chunk Jang Hyun within the face as a result of Gak Hwa is not happy. Their deal was that she would make sure that the captives crossed the river safely onto Joseon land, and he would cross the river to her, and so they’d be collectively without end. Which is the worst deal ever. However as a substitute, all she will get are useless and dying captives returning and no Jang Hyun. She’s satisfied that he isn’t useless and decides to come back to Joseon with Yong Gol Dae (Choi Younger Woo) to search out him.
That is horrible for thus many causes. Given King Injo’s paranoia, when Gol Dae and Gak Hwa begin requesting Jang Hyun as their interpreter, he’s going to imagine that Jang Hyun sides with the Qing. When he hears that Jang Hyun was tight along with his son, he’ll assume that Jang Hyun’s gunning for a coup. If the prince may by some means persuade his father that he has little interest in the throne, then maybe Jang Hyun would stand an opportunity. However he can’t. As a result of he’s useless.
3. The Crown Prince’s loss of life
At this level the prince has been a political prisoner for nearly on a decade. His well being has declined, and his father’s fixed accusations, belittlement, and spite didn’t assist. And one night time, he lastly breathes his final. And that’s when madness breaks unfastened within the palace.
Somewhat than grieve his son’s loss of life, the king accuses him of treason some extra, and with Concubine Jo’s affect, he accuses Prince So Hyun’s spouse Kang Bin (Jeon Hye Gained) of homicide and planting a cursed object within the palace (in an effort to depose Injo). This was a typical accusation made towards girls within the palace. Within the patriarchal Joseon-era, poison and magic had been seen as girls’s weapons, and males had been solely pleased to imagine the worst, regardless of how baseless or ridiculous the accusations had been. The factor is that the accusations aren’t fully false this time. A girl did bury a “cursed” object on palace grounds hoping for the loss of life of a royal member of the family. Solely that girl was Gil Chae.
Some months in the past, Gil Chae tried to promote Concubine Jo some knives. As a substitute, Jo noticed somebody she may use and destroy: a divorced girl who had as soon as been dragged away by the Qing. Somebody nobody would care about. She pressures Gil Chae into burying the article on palace grounds, and Gil Chae solely agrees as a result of she’s heard that they’re torturing Jang Hyun within the palace and desires to rescue him. She buries it and manages to see him being carted out for disposal, half-dead. She’s so ridiculously courageous that she not solely smears blood over herself and performs useless in a pile of corpses so she will be able to save him, however she additionally bludgeons a eunuch to make their getaway.
Jang Hyun’s barely aware, and so they’re assisted by one other eunuch who helps take Jang Hyun to Gil Chae’s place. However by morning, the palace has tortured that eunuch too to disclose the place “Yang Chun” has gone. The eunuch bravely holds out, directing the troopers to Gil Chae’s place however denying that Gil Chae was part of any of it. And that enables Ryang Eum to move Jang Hyun to the house of Minister Kim Ja Jeom (Kim Min Sang), who’s sick of the king’s nonsense. However how does one struggle a corrupt, merciless king when your nation can be being invaded by one other corrupt, merciless monarch?
4. Jang Cheol’s and his students’ protest
“My Dearest” has been fairly life like in displaying us simply how sluggish political change was within the Joseon period. The king’s phrase was regulation, and ministers had been normally torn between the king or the alternative they had been supporting. A king needed to mess up actually, actually badly to ensure that folks to think about a alternative. The truth that nobody has thought of deposing Injo regardless of his mass homicide of his personal folks speaks to how excessive the brink is. The Confucian beliefs enshrined in Joseon regulation dictated that the king got here from the heavens and due to this fact may by no means be questioned, particularly when stated king is underneath assault by a international ruler. This places everybody in a quandary as a result of it signifies that a merciless king in a time of battle can do something as a result of folks have to assist him over the international invaders.
Jang Cheol (Moon Sung Geun) has been a background participant for someday. His students, together with Nam Yeon Joon (Lee Hak Joo), worry King Injo however advise him anyway as a result of Confucian beliefs state that it’s higher for a clever man to supply an evil king counsel than to only sit again and permit different evil males to supply an evil king counsel. However with the king torturing and killing harmless escapees, the students lastly take a stand outdoors the palace and protest. This type of protest is supposed to reveal that the king has violated a Confucian excellent, and the longer the protest goes on the extra unhealthy press the king accumulates as a result of students don’t protest frivolously. Nonetheless, Yeon Joon is linked to Kyung Eun Ae (Lee Da In), who Gil Chae will at all times struggle for. And with Injo able to kill everybody in his path, if he goes after the students, then Gil Chae is throughout the line of fireside as soon as extra.
5. Jang Hyun’s previous and amnesia
Jang Hyun’s accidents are unhealthy. Each Gil Chae and Ryang Eum worry that he’ll die, however he pulls by means of. The difficulty? He has amnesia. That is the worst Okay-drama trope of all time, particularly due to the recollections he relives whereas unconscious that point out that Jang Hyun is Jang Cheol’s lacking son! The present’s simply dropped a shock start secret on us! This complete time it has appeared like Jang Hyun was a younger slave who grew up by means of ability and wit alone, however that’s not the case. He has a slave whom he named Ryang Eum (not the identical as our Ryang Eum) who was in love with Jang Hyun’s sister. Naturally, Jang Cheol was livid and beat the slave to loss of life, after which Jang Hyun seems to have run away and develop into the person we all know right now. That’s an enormous secret to drop, and Gil Chae’s nonetheless unaware. Jang Hyun’s reverted to a a lot youthful self and is a bit awkward round her as a result of he doesn’t acknowledge anybody. However she’s pleased with that.
For as soon as, they’re two folks unburdened by the previous and are in a position to snicker and tease in methods they usually haven’t. Jang Hyun makes amnesia charming. The spell doesn’t final too lengthy, and he reverts to himself fairly rapidly by the top. However that also leaves them in fairly the pickle and solely two episodes left to listen to how this story ends. We have now Gak Hwa and Gol Dae on the way in which to wreck Jang Hyun’s life. And there’s Concubine Jo who’s able to wreck Gil Chae’s life. The king has already poisoned his useless son’s spouse to loss of life after accusing her of treason, so he’s totally misplaced his thoughts. Jang Cheol is unaware that his son is alive however might be Jang Hyun’s final hope as a result of he has no highly effective backing in the meanwhile. Additionally, there’s the white-haired man we noticed within the first episode and all these males surrounding a weeping Jang Hyun on the seashore. Will subsequent week deliver us agony or elation? One factor’s for positive, it’s been one heck of a experience.
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Shalini_A is a very long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she fangirls over Ji Sung, and spins thrillers set in more and more incredible worlds. Observe her on Twitter and Instagram, and be happy to ask her something!
At the moment Watching: “My Dearest,” “Moon within the Day,” “Track of the Bandits,” “Vigilante,” and “Twinkling Watermelon.”
Wanting Ahead to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask the Stars,” “Queen of Tears,” and Ji Sung’s subsequent drama.
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