Our pre-penultimate week ramps up the political twists, but thankfully, this drama has a bright and pretty enough color scheme to even out the dark turn the story has taken. Sigh. There’s a sprinkle of cute moments here and there, but we mostly get betrayals, attempted — and successful — assassination plots, and breakups. Hold on to your hats, people. This is a week like no other.
EPISODES 12-13
This week in The Matchmakers had me going from awww to hmmm to wait, what? and then to whoa! All in all, a very eventful week. Let’s start from a lighthearted angle like Jung-woo’s relationship with the princess. Apparently, he first met her outside the palace dressed as a court lady, and it was love at first sight. “Even back then, I stayed away from crowded places because of my chest pain. But that did not matter. My heart was already racing from the moment we met.” So cute!
Afterwards, Jung-woo kept thinking about the “court lady,” and when he went to the palace to tell the king to retract the royal engagement decree, he met her again. As the princess and his bride-to-be. Jung-woo definitely has a type: women who lie about their identities. Lol. Jung-woo wears a smitten smile as he talks about his late wife, and the fact that he did not marry the princess against his will makes Soon-deok like him even more.
I mentally rolled my eyes at the “we probably met in the past” insinuation when Jung-woo and Soon-deok learn that they grew up in the same neighborhood. But they shattered the stereotype with their joint agreement that they’d probably never have spoken even if they met because they were not each other’s type. I loved it! And I loved that cute married life imagination bit.
That’s it for the cute moments this week. On to the political schemes starting with the murder of Lord Jo’s son. From Jung-woo’s investigation, the son found out that his uncle purchased the golden silkworm poison eight years ago, meaning Lord Jo and Minister Park already conspired to kill the crown prince back then. Unfortunately, something had to have gone wrong somewhere, because even Minister Park doesn’t know why the princess died instead.
The king is rightly upset at this news, but he’s also worried because if Minister Park is convicted of treason, prince Jin-sung might also be implicated by virtue of being Park’s nephew. Sure, the intention behind the whole conspiracy was to enthrone prince Jin-sung. But prince Jin-sung is the king’s son after all, and the king can’t bear to see him executed alongside his mother’s family.
Of course, Lord Jo can never relate to such fatherly love. Sexuality aside, that man killed his son to cover up his treasonous plot. And he claims that he can’t tell his wife the truth about their son’s death because she’ll be all emotional, and it will cause conflict within the household. “Just say that you’re scared of losing my sister’s favor. Save the excuses,” Minister Park mutters, and LOL! To further tighten the lid on the murder case, Minister Park insists on killing Jung-woo himself. But I’m not worried because plot armor aside, Jung-woo will live to see another day if it’s the incompetent Minister Park wielding the sword.
Jung-woo and Soon-deok meet in the palace when Lady Park takes her daughter-in-law along on a visit to Royal Concubine Park. And now that the cat is finally out of the bag, Jung-woo is worried that Soon-deok will be implicated in her in-laws’ treason case. “I might get your sister killed for treason,” he reports himself to Soon-gu. “You should have hinted [that she is Lord Jo’s daughter-in-law] to me earlier.” I know!
To protect Soon-deok — and prince Jin-sung by extension — Jung-woo suggests arresting Lord Jo and Minister Park for another crime for which they’ll bear the consequences alone. That way, they don’t have to be punished for treason — which will implicate their entire family. Because Dumb and Dumber are chronic criminals, it’s easy to tie them to other non-treasonous crimes, viz. Minister Park’s murder of the spinster, and Lord Jo’s murder of his eldest daughter-in-law. “What an insane…” the king spurts when he hears about Lord Jo’s other crime. That’s right, Your Majesty, Lord Jo is insane!
Soon-deok learns that Lady Park is looking into how her son really died, and in coming clean about her Lady Yeo-ju matchmaking business with Jung-woo, Soon-deok tells Lady Park the truth about her son’s death. It’s a shock to Lady Park, but unlike her husband thought she would, she doesn’t have an emotional outburst. She mourns privately, but that’s it. Quite scary, if you ask me. Because the quiet ones are the most dangerous.
Lady Park grounds Soon-deok for the time being, but when Soon-deok overhears the plot to kill Jung-woo, she hurries over to his house — ladle, apron and all — to warn him. Minister Park comes this close to spotting Jung-woo and Soon-deok crouched in their hiding spot, but his gaze falls on Jung-woo’s research into the silkworm poison — and a portrait of Soon-deok. Tsk. He’s so needlessly observant.
After Park leaves, Jung-woo scolds Soon-deok for rushing over because someone might have seen her. “But what does that matter?” Soon-deok asks. “When I thought you could die, my mind went blank.” Jung-woo’s brush with death is all that Soon-deok needs to realize that she cannot forget about him. Of course, Jung-woo finds time to flirt in the midst of everything going on, and Soon-deok silences him with a kiss! Move your lips, people. Oh. Right. I forgot that we’re in Joseon.
At home, Minister Park informs his sister about Jung-woo’s research, and his weakness: Soon-deok. All Park’s perverted mind can think of is the “scandalous affair” between the king’s son-in-law and a married woman. But Lady Park forbids him from saying a word about it to anyone.
How would Minister Park tattle on, though? Soon-gu soon comes to arrest him for murder, and Lord Jo is also arrested. Not gonna lie, seeing them all tied up like the criminals they are gave me so much joy. But I returned to my straight-faced default setting when Lady Park had Soon-deok locked up because she can overlook matchmaking with Jung-woo but not romance.
The crown prince’s maid wakes up, and her testimony against Lord Jo further drives the nail into his coffin. It’s up to Lady Park to protect her family now. Soon-deok is worried about her mother-in-law — who seems touched by the concern, but holds up a resolute front. “However big a crisis may come, if the women of the house are strong and upright, that household will never fall,” Lady Park says, and man, I can’t help but admire her.
Lady Park makes a deal with Jung-woo — and the king by extension — by offering her help with the Protect Prince Jin-sung Plan. In return, she wants to host the Maeng sisters’ wedding alongside Ye-jin’s, and she wants Jung-woo to stop meeting with Soon-deok. I have no idea what she’s plotting with the mass wedding ceremony, but she makes it clear that Jung-woo has no choice but to help her because if her family is charged with treason, Soon-deok will also perish. Ohlala!
Lady Park visits her unremorseful husband in jail to hear from the horse’s mouth, and he doesn’t need to say anything. His expression is all she needs to see to know that he truly killed her son. “You were a nobody, I made you the left state councilor. How dare you kill my son?” She rages at him.
Next thing you know, Lady Park instructs Soon-deok to make dinner for a visit to Minister Park in jail, and to bring a suspicious pill which she adds to his wine. Uh-oh. But at least she looks a little sad while serving her brother his last supper. Up next is another visit to Lord Jo, and Lady Park tells him to prove his innocence by taking his life. Lord Jo refuses, as expected, but Royal Concubine Park strangles him from behind while Lady Park sits and watches the scene with murderous eyes. *Gulps in speechless*
After writing a letter to the crown prince in Ha-na’s name last week, I’m not even surprised that Lady Park went ahead to forge her husband’s will. In said will, Lady Park throws her eldest son under the bus for being the instigator of the treason. “Lord Jo” also writes that he killed his son to prove his loyalty to the king, and he’s taking his life to prove his innocence in the treason. Lord Jo is absolved of the treasonous charges in death, and thus, Lady Park succeeds in protecting the rest of her family.
At this point, I’m shocked at my own double standards because if the tables were turned and Lord Jo killed his wife to “protect the family,” I’d have dedicated paragraphs to bash him. But here I am having selective amnesia when it comes to Lady Park. I actually don’t feel bad for Lord Jo and Minister Park because I wanted them to die at Lady Park’s hands. Their death is quite consistent with her character, because she has always been all about protecting her family — even if now it means she has to kill “family” to protect “family.”
In the absence of Lord Jo and Minister Park, Lady Park has proven herself to be quite the formidable antagonist. And she didn’t even directly get blood on her hands! She instructed Royal Concubine Park to strangle her husband, and she made Soon-deok fetch her the poison for Minster Park under the guise of a pill. Soon-deok feels betrayed when she realizes that she unwittingly helped her mother-in-law commit murder, but life has to go on for the family regardless.
It’s time for the king to repay Lady Park for tying up the Lord Jo business with a nice bow, and we see why she insisted on hosting the Maeng sisters’ wedding. Since the matchmaking project was organized by the royal court, hosting the wedding will show everyone that her family is still influential. Also, since the king-approved ceremony has to be done with Ye-jin’s, Shi-yeol’s family can’t use Lord Jo’s death as an excuse to back out of the engagement. Such tact! Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a new sheriff in town, and her name is Lady Park.
As we wrap up for the week, we learn that Jung-woo’s endless annulment appeals were because of the princess’s final wish for him to work in the government and assist the king. Interesting. But now Jung-woo tells the king not to honor his request for an annulment even if the Maeng sisters get married. And as for his promise to Lady Park, Jung-woo decides to end things with Soon-deok the old fashioned way: “I do not love you anymore.” *Yawns* Dramaland needs to invent a new trope because noble idiocy is stale.
If only our OTP can take a cue from Sam-soon-gu. Because of the crisis with his in-laws, Soon-gu wanted to call off his wedding to Sam-soon. But Sam-soon did not come this far to end up in a broken engagement. Even if Soon-gu has to resign from his position, Sam-soon says she’ll support him. “Do not even think you will not marry me,” she sweetly warns. That’s right, girl. Hold on to your man!
Somehow, now that Soon-deok has come to terms with how strongly she feels about Jung-woo, I don’t think she will allow the seeds of noble idiocy to take root. It helps that the things that were holding her back — the feeling of betraying her late husband, and her respect for her mother-in-law — are all gone now. I don’t care about Mrs. Maeng’s insistence that Jung-woo and Soon-deok are not meant to be together. Those two are endgame whether she likes it or not.