Captivating the King gave us a whopping four episodes this week, with tons of development packed in. Secrets are bared, confessions are made, and lives are put on the line. But the problem with manipulating people like game pieces is that emotions are bound to get in the way — and playing with people’s emotions is bound to produce unexpected results.
EPISODES 7-10
When Lee In catches Myung-ha embracing Mong-woo, Myung-ha blames it on a surge of emotions after reuniting with his cousins, and Mong-woo corroborates. Lee In can tell the two are protecting each other, but accepts their explanations. Having killed Mong-woo once and regretted it every day since, he’s determined to protect him (well, her) this time around.
The anniversary of the previous king’s death is approaching, which means Lee In is about to embark on his yearly pilgrimage to pay his respects. There’s much debate over how many people it’s appropriate to bring, and to everyone’s surprise, Lee In allows his young nephew PRINCE MOON-SUNG (Choi Ye-chan) to join him. Most people assume Lee In wanted an excuse for Mong-woo to tag along. In truth, Prince Moon-sung wanted to come, Mong-woo encouraged him to ask, and Lee In agreed.
When Mong-woo and Prince Moon-sung arrive at the encampment, they wander around watching soldiers spar, unaware that Hyun-bo — having recently learned that Mong-woo is the Baduk Gambler from three years ago — has hired someone to “make sure Mong-woo never plays baduk again.” Thus, Mong-woo gets “accidentally” pushed into the sparring circle. Thanks to prior training from Dal-ha, she holds her own at first. But Hyun-bo’s man overpowers her, clearly going for the kill.
Lee In intervenes. Fighting one-handed (because he’s cool like that), he wins the match and scolds the whole group — they’re supposed to protect their comrades, not harm them in the name of training! Only then does he realize Mong-woo is bleeding (the fight reopened her old back wound), and he calls the royal physician to tend to her in his private quarters. Mong-woo, of course, refuses treatment lest her womanhood be discovered.
After completing the memorial rites, Lee In asks his brother to watch over him as he attempts to free himself from the past and face the future. As if in answer, a gentle rain begins to fall. It’s a mongwoo, which members of the court have come to recognize as a trigger for Lee In’s sudden violent outbursts, especially this time of year. Today, however, it compels Lee In to seek out the human Mong-woo. They share an emotionally supercharged moment in the rain, wherein Lee In admits he likes Mong-woo and she can’t muster a response. When Mong-woo wins their ongoing baduk game (earning a wish, which she postpones using for now) she says it’s because Lee In let his guard down.
She’s right, in more ways than one. A maid overheard his confession, and soon the whole kingdom is gossiping about the king having a preference for men (one in particular). The lords petition for Mong-woo’s dismissal in hopes of dispelling the rumors, but Lee In refuses. The rumor also inconveniences COURT LADY DONG (Park Ye-young), who served the previous king and notoriously enjoys Lee In’s favor and trust. It has been generally presumed that Court Lady Dong is the reason Lee In hasn’t consummated with the queen or any of his concubines, but now it’s becoming clear that he hasn’t done anything with her, either. Nor does he plan to. But with the royal reputation at risk, the queen dowager appoints a night for Lee In to bed Court Lady Dong, whether he likes it or not.
Regarding the rumor itself, Lee In is largely unbothered. He makes a bet with Mong-woo that if someone mocked him for it to his face, he’d laugh right along with them. So off they go, accompanied by his faithful bodyguard JOO SANG-HWA (Kang Hong-seok) and a host of undercover guards, in search of someone to laugh at him so he can laugh with them and win the bet. They wander the marketplace all afternoon, but to Lee In’s annoyance, no one they meet says anything about his sexual preferences. Eventually, he shouts at Sang-hwa to go fetch the rumor so he won’t lose by default.
He and Mong-woo banter while they wait, and quite suddenly Lee In remarks, “You know, if you were a woman, I totally would have married you.” That stuns both of them, so much that when two women stroll by laughing about the rumor, Lee In is too caught up in his emotions to laugh. Suddenly, he’s not sure the rumor is groundless after all.
The appointed night arrives. Mong-woo slips away from the guard Lee In assigned to her and meets up with Myung-ha. He declares that he’s cut off his feelings for her (I’m not so sure, but okay). Now it’s her turn to sever her feelings for Lee In. Mong-woo knows he’s right, but it’s easier said than done, and she drinks herself silly and staggers off to sleep under a tree.
Lee In, meanwhile, hears that Mong-woo has disappeared. Though he initially tries to obey orders and have his night with Court Lady Dong, he can’t bring himself to actually do the deed. Instead, he goes searching for Mong-woo. When he finds her, he piggybacks her to the nearest safe lodging — her father’s old house, now unoccupied.
In the bedroom, Lee In can’t leave well enough alone. After all, who could sleep comfortably in a gat and outer garments? Mong-woo wakes up just as he’s untying her robe, and the way she frantically clutches her clothes to her chest reveals the truth to him at last: she’s a woman. Enraged, he reminds her that he swore she would die the second he found any deceit in her. So Mong-woo calls in her wish, but not to ask for a pardon. Instead, she kisses him. After warring with himself, Lee In kisses her back.
While making love to her, Lee In muses that he finally understands why sending her to what he believed to be her death felt like cutting off his own arm. He promises not to ask about her identity or why she hides it — the love they share is enough for him. After he leaves the next morning, he invents a reason to have her placed on house arrest for her own safety.
Meanwhile, Lord Park sets his next big scheme in motion. He corners Lee In into a deal: Hyun-bo will attempt to guide a Qing envoy to the palace within three days. If Hyun-bo fails, he and Lord Park will be punished severely. If he succeeds, Lee In must permanently dismiss and exile Mong-woo. Unfortunately, the envoy’s interpreter is in Lord Park’s pocket, and Hyun-bo easily delivers the envoy inside the three-day window. Lord Park wastes no time having Mong-woo arrested and marched away.
But at the welcome feast Lee In throws for the envoy, things take a different turn (mostly by Lee In’s design). This man, it turns out, is on friendly terms with Lee In from Lee In’s time in captivity. Unimpressed by the entertainment, he asks to play baduk against Lee In’s famous gidaeryeong. Lord Park protests, but even he can’t afford to make Lee In look bad in front of such an important guest. Mong-woo is summoned, and the envoy proposes a bet of his own: if he wins the game, he decides Mong-woo’s fate; if Mong-woo wins, Lord Park decides.
There’s no ideal outcome here for Mong-woo, as the envoy will likely carry her back to Qing if he wins. But through what she insists is a stroke of luck, she manages to force a tie — something the envoy has never seen in a lifetime of playing baduk. Since there’s technically no winner, Mong-woo is released.
That’s one crisis averted, but the envoy carries a distressing letter from Prince Rui. He wants to marry Lee In’s niece, PRINCESS JANG-RYEONG (Ahn Se-eun), and refusal would mean war. Princess Jang-ryeong begs Lee In not to let them take her, but he doesn’t have much of a choice. As he tells Mong-woo in private, he’d once thought the throne would empower him to protect the people he cares about; instead, the responsibility to do what’s best for Joseon prevents him from putting his feelings — and his loved ones — first.
So Mong-woo takes matters into her own hands. Another former captive to Qing, BOON-YOUNG (Kim Bo-yoon), already acts as Mong-woo’s spy in the palace, so Mong-woo asks her to switch places with Princess Jang-ryeong. Theoretically, this kills two birds with one stone: 1) Princess Jang-ryeong doesn’t have to separate from her brother and be married off to a foreign prince, and 2) Mong-woo and her allies can plant a spy in Prince Rui’s inner circle and hopefully bring more captives home. Of course, for the plan to work, they need both Princess Jang-ryeong and Prince Moon-sung in on it. Both are terrified (they’re just kids, after all!), but they agree once Mong-woo assures them it’s for the sake of Joseon and not her own gain.
The queen dowager and Lord Park, however, aren’t blind to the possibility of a princess swap and take extra precautions to prevent it. Princess Jang-ryeong’s attendants are switched out without notice (by chance, Boon-young is allowed to stay). Then the envoy’s interpreter pays a surprise visit to deliver the bridal garments and meet Princess Jang-ryeong ahead of time (Boon-young switches outfits with her just in time).
Lee In, knowing nothing of Mong-woo’s plan, says an emotional farewell to Princess Jang-ryeong that echoes what his brother said to him before his own exile. Once the goodbyes are over, Princess Jang-ryeong helps Boon-young don the bridal garments, and the procession comes to take her away. But as soon as they depart, a court lady realizes one maid is missing and catches a glimpse of Princess Jang-ryeong running away. The court lady alerts Lord Park, who intercepts the bridal procession with the excuse that he neglected his farewell greetings. Despite Boon-young’s best efforts to keep up the ruse, her veil comes off, and Lord Park grins in triumph. He heads straight back to the palace to confront Lee In, and Mong-woo immediately realizes that the plan has gone awry. It’s time to tell Lee In what she’s done.
First things first, he knows! And these two continue to deliver off-the-charts intensity whenever they’re together. I’m so glad Lee In hasn’t gone completely off the deep end (yet), and I feel for him trying to do what he believes is right for everyone while having to accept that his power to actually do that is extremely limited.
While I don’t think Mong-woo is quite as good of a strategist outside of baduk as she thinks she is, I do appreciate her internal struggle. It’s not unlike Lee In’s, really — no matter how much she still cares for him, she’s bound by what she considers her duty to the people to remove him from the throne. Which is why she tells herself things like “he’s only pretending to like me,” and that their night together was a one-time thing that she’s already “forgotten.” But, as her maid pointed out, feelings aren’t baduk stones; you can’t just arrange them however you like.
On that note, the princess swap definitely wasn’t an example of Mong-woo’s best work. But the prince and princess certainly sold me on their courage and love for each other, and I liked that Prince Moon-sung felt guilty for deceiving Lee In about it. Well-intentioned or not, Mong-woo is playing with people’s emotions and lives, and it’s bound to end badly if she keeps it up. But I’m hoping that she’ll learn from this failure, and that she and Lee In will find a way to work together to save Princess Jang-ryeong and Boon-young from suffering the consequences of Mong-woo’s actions.
And while I’m making wishes, I hope that whatever happens to our leads, Prince Moon-sung makes it out unscathed. One of my favorite relationships in the whole show is his adorable friendship with the queen, and at every turn he’s shown wisdom and bravery way beyond his years. I think he’d make an excellent king eventually — I just hope that, if that’s what we’re building toward, he gets to ascend the throne under vastly different circumstances than Lee In did.