Our scheming heroine has made quite a mess of things, and just as one crisis is averted, another takes its place. Worse, though, her own feelings are starting to get in the way of her big revenge plan, and time is running out for her to keep putting off making an irreversible decision.
EPISODES 11-12
Mong-woo quickly ‘fesses up about the princess swap before Lord Park can tell Lee In first. Lee In is just as dumbfounded by the recklessness of her plan as we were, though his conscience twinges a bit when Mong-woo says she did it because she understood Princess Jang-ryeong’s pain (I’d argue that Lee In understands it better, but that’s just me).
Fortunately for everyone, Lord Park didn’t actually see Boon-young’s face — he’s operating on suspicion and hoping to plant enough doubt in Lee In’s mind to get Myung-ha and Prince Moon-sung tortured into confessing. Since Lee In already knows the truth, he’s able to call Lord Park’s bluff. The Qing envoys have expressed no issues with the princess they received, so there’s no need to go after them and cause an issue. Lord Park is rebuffed, and Lee In strictly warns Mong-woo and Myung-ha never to attempt such a stunt again. Then he has the real Princess Jang-ryeong escorted safely into hiding.
Knowing Mong-woo must have played some part in these events, Lord Park changes tactics and tries planting doubts in her mind instead. He claims he wanted to spare her three years ago, but that Lee In insisted she was a necessary sacrifice to secure his throne. It works, to a point: Mong-woo is so deep in thought on her way home that she doesn’t realize she’s being followed by two groups of people until Sang-hwa’s men take out Hyun-bo’s minions and Lee In materializes right behind her.
They relocate to more private surroundings, where he clarifies that he was angry with himself more than with her and that he never doubted her words about not testifying against him. When Mong-woo admits she doesn’t know what to make of his words, he says that right now, he’s just a man in love with a woman. But he also doesn’t presume to ask forgiveness for betraying her back then and acknowledges that there’s a possibility he could end up hurting her again. He asks her to consider if she’s willing to stay by his side anyway. After thinking it over, Mong-woo shows up in the rain to announce that she’ll endure whatever suffering may come and stay with him.
The moment Lee In embraces her, thunder shakes the palace and lightning strikes a particular peach tree. Yes, it’s THE peach tree that Lee In’s brother planted during his exile. The one Myung-ha was supposed to revive. The tree burns to a crisp, which Lee In takes as a direct sign from heaven that he’s failing his kingly duties. He calls an emergency court session to ask the lords’ opinions and tasks them with rooting out corruption among the public officials.
Meanwhile, the queen’s health deteriorates rapidly. Knowing she doesn’t have much time left, she asks Mong-woo how she can help Prince Moon-sung, who has been devotedly caring for her. Mong-woo explains that the only way to secure his future is to have him appointed crown prince. It’s a dangerous thing to propose, but the queen begs her father to petition for it anyway, phrasing it as her dying wish. Being a loving father, he does.
This throws a wrench in Lord Park’s plans (again). He and the queen dowager have been plotting to choose a new queen, and ultimately produce an heir, from their circle of influence. Lord Park even jilted one of his pseudo-allies in the court to ensure he (Lord Park, that is) got to keep maximum power for himself. But the newly reinstated and infamously impartial INSPECTOR GENERAL KIM JE-NAM (Lee Yoon-hee) supports the queen’s request and suggests Lee In adopt Prince Moon-sung as his son. The whole court (minus Lord Park and Hyun-bo) agrees, so the adoption proceeds. When Prince Moon-sung happily greets the queen as “Mother” for the first — and last — time, she gives up the ghost right then and there, finally able to rest in peace.
Lord Park is so fed up that he sneaks into the private area of the palace that only Lee In, Sang-hwa, and Mong-woo are allowed to enter. When Lee In catches him, Lord Park shouts for Lee In to come to his senses, and Lee In snaps. He turns downright scary as he puts Lord Park squarely in his place. Lord Park tries to backpedal, but Lee In keeps going: No wonder his brother wanted him dead — power isn’t meant to be shared. And by the way, he can always expel Prince Moon-sung later down the road and have him taken care of quietly.
Mong-woo, hiding in the shadows, hears the whole thing and takes it at face value. She’s heartbroken and confused, and grief over the queen’s passing doesn’t help to clarify her emotions. Dal-ha has been hounding her all along to let him assassinate Lee In; now she relents. They prepare an ambush: she asks Lee In to meet after dark, and when he arrives, she’ll let him go inside alone, where Dal-ha is waiting. But when it comes down to the moment of truth, Mong-woo can’t go through with it. She grabs Lee In’s sleeve and tearfully warns him not to go inside. It doesn’t take long for Lee In to guess what this means.
Frustrating as the events leading up to it were, I did enjoy watching Lee In and Mong-woo operating as a team to clean up the mess that, admittedly, Mong-woo shouldn’t have made in the first place. When these two are on the same page, they’re a force to be reckoned with, and I really liked how the Prince Moon-sung angle played out.
Unlike the princess swap, this plan felt less like Mong-woo conjuring a solution out of thin air and convincing everyone else it was the right thing to do and more like her nudging people to take a risk they already at least halfway wanted to take. Which is why I wouldn’t necessarily say the queen was lying when she told Lee In it was her idea — I think she latched onto it as the one thing within her power to do something good for someone she had come to love.
As for the big, angsty elephant in the room, I don’t doubt for a moment that Lee In only said what was necessary to shut Lord Park up. But we’re privy to more of his inner thoughts than Mong-woo is, so for the most part I can buy her disappointment. I think my biggest problem with her, however, is that at times she reads Lee In like an open book. Like when she correctly (even if he didn’t want to admit it) deduced that his readiness to plant a new tree reflected his openness to installing a new heir. But at other times she tosses all that intuition out the window as if she’s willfully believing the worst of him in spite of herself. And it doesn’t help that she listens to Myung-ha, who openly admits he’s willfully believing the worst even after being repeatedly shown mercy. Here’s hoping this assassination attempt serves as a wake-up call?