Let s Swing Again  2016  Aura
Tags: featured, Hong Jong-hyun, IU, Kang Haneul, Lee Jun-ki, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Eye Ryeo
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Source: https://www.dramabeans.com/2016/08/moon-lovers-scarlet-heart-ryeo-episode-2/
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Moon Lovers: Ruby Heart Ryeo: Episode two
by javabeans
And at present information technology's time for Episode ii of Moon Lovers, which I know aired yesterday, and there's a whole third episode sitting here waiting for me to get to it. I'm recapping like the wind, I swear! A really tiresome, tired wind with joint problems.
The 2nd episode was a lot more action-packed than the first, since we could move past well-nigh of the introductions (even though I'm still working to keep all the princes and bloodline loyalties directly in my goldfish-memory encephalon). I do wonder if there was a better way, conceptually, to start this series in a way that could still innovate everyone properly and have more plot happen off the bat. I think there probably are other approaches, merely barring a whole rehaul of format and gazillions of flashbacks and other devices, I call back it's just inevitable that information technology would accept a piddling while to settle in. So let's outset settling.
EPISODE 2 RECAP
Hae Su (or to exist more accurate, 21st-century Ha-jin, who'southward decided to live as Hae Su) is rescued from a autumn off a ridge by Wang So, the quaternary imperial prince of Goryeo, as he charges by on horseback. Well, I suppose it was his error she about fell, so it'south the least he could do.
Su stares upwards at So with wide optics, clinging tightly as he continues riding for a bit before halting the equus caballus. She'due south transfixed, looking intently into his face, and he glances dorsum at her… before dumping her onto the ground in a heap. Heh.
Glaring, she stops him to chastise him for his rudeness. He's taken ashamed at her forthrightness, simply responds by purposely rearing his horse up on its hind legs to scare her. She falls downwards and he rides on with a smirk, leaving her fuming in his wake.
Su exclaims the she ought to study him to the police, but a bystander lets her know that he was the notorious fourth prince—it's a lucky matter she survived the encounter.
Su'due south maid Chae-ryung comes running up to tell her that Princess Yeonhwa is looking for her.
Currently, the princess is with her brothers, or at least the six of them that get along; And so is absent. The meeting is for the princes to set up for the upcoming ceremony, held on the last 24-hour interval of the yr to hunt out evil spirits from the palace. The others take this opportunity to complain about how difficult it is to get along with And then, who'southward moody and scary.
Which is, of course, the moment Then chooses to footstep inside, and the princes snap to attention, tensing with worry. The only one who looks happy to see So is Princess Yeonhwa, who (historical spoiler alert!) is both his one-half-sister and future wife. She lives hither with eighth prince Wook (her full brother), and invites So to stay in this firm while he's in the city, which Wook agrees with.
But shifty-looking third prince Yo interjects, telling Wook not to endeavour as well hard with So: "He's understands the linguistic communication of beasts better than people."
The others stiffen at the barb, just And then just replies, "Ah, that's why I understand my hyungnim's [Yo's] words then well." Prissy burn down.
The maids enter with snacks, which is also Su'south cue to join the gathering, although she does her all-time to hang back out of sight. Her skulking behind a pillar gets the attention of tenth prince Eun, who gets in her face and tries to place why she'south so familiar, while she goes cross-eyed and prays that he won't figure it out.
Eun makes the connection, though, and asks if she was the peeping tom at the baths. Su blurts a deprival, and accidentally knocks down a maid carrying a tray, sending plateware crashing to the basis.
Faced with the princess's anger and a roomful of staring princes, Su runs out in mortification.
Thirteenth prince Baek-ah comments that Su has changed; she used to be quite small-scale and careful. Wook just replies that he was never that close with her and wouldn't know. (Or and so you say—I've got my eye on you lot.) Princess Yeonhwa supposes that Eun was mistaken, since it would have been impossible for Su to get entry to their royal bathroom.
Su calms her racing heart and tells herself to hang in there, and so spots Eun stepping outside—he's still convinced he recognizes her correctly and goes searching for her.
Su initially ducks for cover, but then sees Eun stopping to peer through a tear in the door. He doesn't find Su there, merely he sure doesn't finish watching the maid undress.
Then maid girl Chae-ryung sees him and screams, sending Eun running, only to exist blocked by a stern-faced Su. Eun insists, rather unconvincingly, that he's innocent of the slave's allegation, and Chae-ryung tin can't exist absolutely certain information technology was him.
But Su retorts that she saw it clearly, and scolds the prince like an ajumma schooling an errant schoolboy. She orders him to apologize, which Eun can't fifty-fifty fathom doing—a prince, bowing to a slave?
He storms off, and Su chases him to insist he apologize, grabbing at his cloak. He shoves her off, and when she crashes to the footing, that just pisses Su off more. She trips Eun, and then engages in a full-on hair-grabbing tussle.
The sounds of their yelping reach the other princes indoors, and they get upwardly to take a expect. All but So, who remains disinterested.
By the time the princes go exterior, the fight has progressed to headlocks (his) and biting (hers). Eun knocks her down, she kicks him over, and and then she climbs on tiptop of him and smacks him repeatedly. Eun warns that she won't escape unscathed, merely Su is caught upwards in her fury, calling him a sexual harasser.
He mocks her openly, so Su delivers the final blow: a mighty head-butt that stuns everyone watching. She rolls up her sleeve and pulls back to evangelize a doozy of a slap—only this fourth dimension, a manus grabs her wrist.
Information technology's And then, who seems amused while she gapes in surprise. Eun tries to charge at Su, but Wook intervenes, warning him that at that place are many eyes watching. Eun flounces off in a pet.
Su finally wrenches her hand free of So'due south grasp, then follows him to have more words. She demands an apology from him, also, for his rudeness. He asks who she is to demand that—what is her social status, that she could treat royalty so roughly?
It's not an statement she finds persuasive: "So if I'm a slave you'd ignore me, but apologize if I were a princess?" She declares that she'll get her apology from him, and too "that petty kid prince" too.
So nods along, as though conceding—but and so he leans fashion down to look her eye to eye, warning that after he apologizes to her, "You'll accept to die. And you'll exist okay with that?"
He starts to say the words, "I'm sor¬—" but Su exclaims, "Unni!" and uses the arrival of her cousin, Lady Hae, to cutting him off.
She then accompanies Lady Hae to the temple for prayer, and Lady Hae tells her that no matter the reason, she laid a hand on an imperial prince—she won't exist able to escape punishment. It's even possible that Wook volition confront punishment considering she's in his care.
Lady Hae wonders how Su could have changed so much, and explains that this is where mothers come to pray for their children. She doesn't take children, only indicates her tower of prayer stones and explains that these are on behalf of Su.
Lady Hae explains having decided to expect after Su, who'd lost her own female parent, every bit a mother would. Merely on a day like this, she fears her efforts and affection have been bereft, and feels aback thinking that Su'southward mother is watching.
At that, Su starts to cry, thinking of her own mother. Lady Hae envelops her in a hug, and asks tearfully what she is to do with her. She tells Su to get along well hither, if only for her female parent'due south sake, and that makes Su cry harder.
Su sits outside the temple for a long while, thinking of how she's causing problem for people who take care of her. She wonders if there's a style to go back and asks Chae-ryung after that man she'd seen earlier (Astronomer Choi)—she recognized his face every bit the homeless human on the pier, the just link to her time.
Su considers the bathing springs, but Chae-ryung shudders at the thought, warning her against returning to the site where she almost died.
Astronomer Choi examines Eun'southward black eye while ninth prince Won and thirteenth prince Baek-ah snicker in amusement. Eun fumes over the audacity of the girl who'd dare enhance a hand to royalty, but Won teases him virtually his "fateful meeting."
Baek-ah fans the flames, saying that a woman wouldn't bother raising a paw to him if she were uninterested. Clueless Eun actually seems to believe that, and asks follow-up questions while his brothers attempt not to express mirth.
They mollusk upwards when So enters the building, and lookout man curiously as he makes his mode to a room, shoving bated a court lady to force his style in. So wears a smile of anticipation on his face equally he enters the room…
But information technology fades when he sees that his mother, Queen Sinmyeongsunseong, is sitting with his ii full brothers, 3rd prince Yo and fourteenth prince Jung. Ouch, that'south got to hurt, considering that she treats him with indifference at best.
And then joins them anyway, and his mother consciously refuses to look at him. Younger brother Jung fills the silence by talking near So'southward recent improvements in martial arts. At that, the queen asks if he's actually been learning martial arts, and So replies that he hasn't. The queen supposes that his adoptive family unit in Shinju would have no reason to practise that.
Yo chimes in with the rumor of a canis familiaris-wolf actualization in the urban center, clearly aimed at So. So just replies levelly, "He's said to exist from Shinju, isn't he?"
The queen calls the visit to a close, and So tin can barely mask his disappointment, proverb that information technology's been two years since they've seen each other. The queen merely says it's out of consideration for his adoptive female parent, merely And then replies that he intends to stay longer this time, and asks to stay with his brothers at the family unit's private residence.
It'due south nearly painful to watch Then alternate between hope and disappointment, continuing to endeavour for his mother's affection despite the abiding rejections. The queen balks at his suggestion, declaring Then a member of the Shinju Kang clan; his return to his birth family would cause strife betwixt the 2 clans.
And then chokes back his bitterness, saying, "They said I was sent equally an adopted son, only hostage was correct."
Yo mocks his employ of "hostage," every bit though So is being overly dramatic, and the queen asks, "How could I employ you as hostage?" And so replies, "When you say that, I must believe yous." Then he reaches into his cloak to give his mother a present.
But Jung beats him to the punch, presenting her with a lovely hairpin that she fawns over. Stunned and hurt, Then keeps the hairpin he'd brought her tucked in his cloak.
He excuses himself to leave, and Yo throws a departing shot at his back, remarking that information technology's quite an embarrassment to see a prince so pathetic. So doesn't react every bit he exits, non even when he finds his other half-brothers eavesdropping in the hallway.
After his difference, the queen tells her other two sons to make sure So is sent dorsum after the ceremony, calling soldiers if necessary.
And so Jung shares an interesting rumor he's heard, that the queen herself was the cause of So's disfigurement. He says it like it's unbelievable, just Yo rebukes Jung sharply for repeating groundless rumors.
On his style out, So is stopped by Astronomer Choi, who suggests he bathe before the rites and has a servant escort him away.
That dark, Su makes her style lone to the bathing pools in search of a link to that homo she'd seen. She supposes seeing him could have even been a divine sign, and hopes that ways there's a mode for her to return home. With her prince-hitting punishment hanging over her head, she'south motivated to leave Goryeo as soon as possible.
Once in the bathing pool, And so removes his mask (oh give thanks god, I've been dying for that thing to come off), and we run across the multitude of scars all over his back and torso. He stares into the still water… and so rears back when Su bursts out of the pool.
She comes up gasping, and equally she locks eyes with So, they both freeze. After a beat, he claps a mitt over his scarred eye, looking ashamed.
"Did you encounter?" he asks hesitantly. Su merely stares in shock, speechless, and So grabs her throat and bellows, "I asked if yous saw!"
She begs for mercy, and when he orders her to forget him, she nods jerkily. So grabs his mask and clothes and leaves the pool—and misses seeing that the hairpin he bought for his mother falls to the ground.
Su spots it and takes information technology with her, then takes the long walk back home. By the fourth dimension she arrives, the whole household is outside waiting for her, which stuns her.
Lady Hae chides her for leaving without a word, leaving the whole family to worry. The discussion "family" sticks with Su, and she realizes, "I've… come up dwelling."
After, Su asks her maid Chae-ryung about the 4th prince, and Chae-ryung freaks out merely at the mention of him, urging Su to avoid him at all costs if she were to encounter him—his cruelty is famous.
Chae-ryung describes his background equally nosotros encounter an exhausted, bloody And then making his way down rocky terrain, to the men who wait downwards below. They're his adoptive family unit members from the Kang association, and the leader seems both awed and disappointed that And so didn't die—they forced him to boxing wolves for sport, and he'd supposedly killed all the wolves in Shinju.
Chae-ryung adds that So is said to kill people, too—peculiarly those who see the scar on his face. Alarmed, Su realizes that she actually did simply escape death. She'due south also surprised to exist told that So'south royal status is what enables him to travel freely, considering people here can't stand to await upon people with disfigured faces. Su grumbles to herself that the tendency to give the upper classes preferential treatment hasn't changed in a thousand years.
Then'south mother, Queen Sinmyeongsunseong, bathes alone and thinks back to a recent conversation she'd had with her eldest son, Yo. They've been biding their time for a while, and they feel the need to speed things up because of the recent rumors that the male monarch may abdicate the throne to Crown Prince Mu. The queen says that the upcoming anniversary is their best gamble at eliminating Mu, and Yo assures her non to worry.
On the day of the ceremony to hunt out evil spirits, the palace bustles with preparations. Queen Sinmyeongsunseong is elaborately dressed and adorned, and comments that she will shine the brightest in the palace today.
She encounters another majestic consort in the courtryard, Queen Sinjeong, mother to Wook and Princess Yeonhwa. (Queen Sinmyeongsunseong is the third espoused, while Queen Sinjeong is the 4th.) With her and the princess is daughter-in-law Lady Hae.
The queens commutation pleasantries, and Queen Sinmyeongsunseong invites the princess to visit her for a conversation old. They maintain smiles until Queen Sinmyeongsunseong moves on, at which point Princess Yeonhwa's face darkens.
The princess dislikes the idea of her mother having to deal with Queen Sinmyeongsunseong all solitary in the palace, and wishes her brother Wook would bring his mother into the private residence. At that, Lady Hae cautions her to picket her words in the palace.
Queen Sinjeong agrees, and advises her daughter "to forget it all." The princess asks bitterly, "How can I forget that grudge?"
Queen Sinjeong wonders why Su wasn't brought along with her, and Lady Hae replies that Su has been making many mistakes in the wake of her accident, and she idea it best to exit her backside.
The princes do one last run-through of their sword-dance, and Crown Prince Mu beams in approval. Tenth prince Eun asks Wook if Su will be here today (now that the thought is planted that she likes him), and that question gets him roundly teased by his brothers, who joke nigh him getting some other black eye to lucifer his first. It brings a smile to everyone'south face, even so's—although the second he sees Wook noticing, the smile fades.
Meanwhile, shifty-looking Yo looks over at a line of blackness-clad men arriving for their office in the ritual, wearing demon masks.
Merely Crown Prince Mu is working his counterplay, and secretly exchanges costumes with So.
Meanwhile, Su and Chae-ryung head out into the city to relish the festivities there, admiring the dancing and lights.
At the palace, So takes the lead position as the ceremony begins, though everybody else believes him to exist Mu. In this ritual, he plays the function of the leader in driving out the demons from the palace, with princes providing backup.
The performance is a mix of martial arts and dance, and Queen Sinjeong compliments "Mu" for his skilled showing. (This is not a surprise, since Mu has a military background, though notably, And so does not—despite his reputation for savagery, his lack of official fighting training has been noted.)
So it's time for the demon-masked men to join the operation, and So takes them on in an impressive choreographed display. Masked Yo joins And then as they drive out the demons, reciting an incantation together.
But all of a sudden, more than masked men fly in from to a higher place, and immediately the king and Astronomer Choi know that this wasn't function of the planned ritual. The demons describe their swords to attack So, and Astronomer Choi sounds the call to protect the king.
Soldiers rush the king's platform to guard him, and by now the princes realize something's awry. And then—nonetheless masked—takes on an army of demons, and Wook is the first to charge into the fray to help. The other princes follow adapt, evening the numbers.
At one point Yo exchanges a glance with the demon he's pretending to fight, then maneuvers their swords and points it at So—to the eye, it would look like an accidental stabbing. The sword slices Then'due south arm and he goes downward, and so a demon swoops in for the impale.
But a masked prince jumps in at the final second and defends So—ah, the real Mu—and the demons sense defeat and besprinkle. Yo orders the soldiers to catch the assassins, and the king hurries to check on his son. The mask comes off, and he's stunned to see So'south face instead of Mu'south.
Immediately, the king demands to know where Mu is, and ouch, there's such a wait of hurt on So'due south confront as he registers his father's priorities, and how he doesn't figure in them. Mu reveals himself, the rex relaxes, and the queen realizes her plot was foiled.
Then says he will grab the culprits and runs off lone. Mu grabs his sword to follow, but his male parent stops him.
So heads into the city streets, spotting the assassins traveling on rooftops, and chases. The pursuit leads him through the urban center streets, and at one point Su spots him while taking a break from sight-seeing.
Curiosity compels her to follow, even as the hunt takes So into the woods. What. Why are you going into the wood?! Don't be that idiot!
And so catches upwardly with the assassins and engages in a swordfight with one of them. They face off in a trigger-happy clash, while Su wanders into a different area of the forest. There, she happens upon a meeting of the other assassins as they meet with their leader—Prince Yo—and bow before him with heads bowed. And then, at his command, Yo'south guards kill the failed assassins.
Su stares in horror and quietly retreats, simply lets out a tiny gasp… and Yo hears it. When he whirls effectually, however, she'southward gone.
Back to So, who demands to know whom the assassin is working for. He offers a deal to spare the assassin's life in substitution for the proper noun, and the assassin wavers, uncertain.
And simply as he starts to lower his sword, Su comes running up, gasping about the scene she just witnessed. Gack!
So patently, the assassin at present grabs Su hostage, and holds his sword to her pharynx.
But So just tells him to go ahead and kill her, to the assassin'due south shock. "Or should I do it?" And then asks.
He raises his sword and points it at Su's face, and equally one blade digs into her neck, she begs to be saved. And so smirks that i woman ways zero to him and presses the assassinator for a name.
Once again the assassinator wavers, loosening his grip, and So feels victory in his grasp… but Su sees the blade moving away from her neck and bites the assassin's hand, shoving him away. I recall this is the definition of digging your own grave.
The assassin moves to kill her anyhow, and And then starts to react, but a dagger flies in and embeds itself in the assassin's head. It'due south Wook, arriving in the nick of time.
Except, it's not good timing for And so, who's merely been robbed of answers. He grabs Su angrily, raging at her for ruining things. His sword presses close to her neck.
But Wook holds his sword to So's neck and tells him to allow her go. In 1 quick move, And then whirls to clash swords with Wook, and replies that he won't.
COMMENTS
This episode was more satisfying than the kickoff, although I plant the premiere episode entertaining and adequate for its purposes. (Although mayhap "acceptable" is part of the problem, when we were promised glorious. I suspect that the undercurrent of thwarting I'g hearing has a lot to do with elevated expectations, that killer of dramaland fun. Mayhap it'due south non the only reason, simply surely it's a big one.) We got to meet more of the princes we cared most (So), and information technology was easier to relegate the bottom princes to background territory, offering moments of levity while the primary princes did the dramatic lifting.
I besides liked the way the prove had Su slowly seeing this world equally more of a permanent place to live, even every bit she's nonetheless searching for a manner out. I even so find her reaction to being dropped in Goryeo to not quite ring truthful, merely aside from that betoken, I like the moment she realizes that her actions take consequences for the people here, who have been very nice in looking after her, and that for now, this is the closest thing to family she has. (I don't recall my feeling of disconnect has to do with time constraints—i.due east., needing to fix up story quickly—because I think that the heroine in Splish Splash Love got that across in even less fourth dimension. It's all about taking some intendance to constitute tone and emotional connection, and I experience like we're skipping some of that here.)
And don't get me started on the frustrating foolishness of her wandering into a forest at dark lonely while men were clearly fighting to the death. At that point I had to throw up my hands and think that if she died, it would be her own damn fault. I appreciate that she has spunk, and doesn't allow social rank cow her into deference, mostly because that ways zip to her. I similar that version of Su, who is driven more by what's right than what's expected of her. Just the end of this episode was an annoyance, and the evidence had better smarten her up from here on out, y'hear me?!
By dissimilarity, I think the show's doing a marvelous job with Then, or maybe that's Lee Jun-ki's work. Probably a combination of the two. It's partly to do with the way the story is setting up his background and affection-starved life, just also owes much to his diverse range of expressions and microexpressions. The scene with the queen and her ii other sons is a prime instance of this, considering there was so much emotion going on in that location and I could track every single thread—And then longing to see his mother, feeling hope at her reaction and disappointment at her lack of 1, being hurt and her connected rejections, and forcing nonchalance to act like none of this affects him.
It likewise provides a meaty footing for the adult he's grown into, who can commit savage acts without flinching. I can't say I love the way he treats our heroine, but I do similar that the drama is humanizing him and providing the explanation without necessarily romanticizing his brutishness. At least, I really hope they don't accept it in that management; so far, I feel hopeful about the portrayal. And his reaction when she defenseless him in his most vulnerable country was a lovely moment—not lovely that he tried to strangle her, of class, but that we saw him drawing back first, and then lashing out to encompass up. Information technology'south pretty telling of his M.O. all around.
I'thousand not certain I'1000 feeling all of the princes, and while we have enough of time for each one to go his ain moment in the spotlight, I think it'due south a four-homo testify with 4 bridesmaids. Which, really, is fine by me, so long equally the conflict remains interesting. Yo'due south scheming is familiar strife, just I hope we have more than that equally a source of conflict; I observe Wook the more interesting potential source of clashing. He's the most civil and friendly, but he'due south as well the 1 I'd peg every bit the smartest and likely to play his cards close to the vest. I wouldn't take my centre of him… not that I'd desire to.
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