Ron Does Stuff

From being up to date to now being out of date, that’s the situation right now. Unexpectedly busy weekend, right when new episodes for this come out! Much as I’d love to prioritize this, I’m just doing this for fun and it isn’t putting food on the table.

Anyway, I am sneaking this in while I have some free time this morning. Let’s get down to the new episodes!

At the end of the previous episode, Jang Wook has proven his skills and was asked to join any of the powerful mage families of Daeho. He picks Songrim, and obviously his time settling into Songrim is going to be a big part of this episode.

The scene opens with Jang Wook’s entrance ceremony into Songrim, and because I am uncultured swine who doesn’t watch a lot of these kinds of dramas it does kinda remind me of The Untamed, because that is the only other similar thing I have seen and I am what? Uncultured!

To help Jang Wook get comfortable with the rest of the mages in Songrim, his head maidservant arranges for a walwal night at the bar for everyone, but for Jang Wook, the whole thing is still an emotional moment. It also provides Naksu a moment to look back at the journey she and Jang Wook have been on together, and it’s supposed to be a look back at how they began to be attracted to one another but honestly, the chemistry isn’t that strong. It’s gotten better than the first several episodes, but it’s not better than Naksu’s chemistry with the other characters.

Meanwhile, the evil queen and Jin Mu are plotting against Jang Wook. They know that he’s the rightful king, which really makes all of Park Jin’s machinations in the previous episodes useless because you aren’t hiding anything. All you did was create drama! You are the drama!

We also find out that it was Jang Gang/Geon, Jang Wook’s father, who unsealed the magical hailstone, and the villains wonder why he didn’t master Hwansu and install Jang Wook as king. Cue villain declaration of “He’s weak!” Although we do get a short flashback of Jin Mu mourning someone when he says Jang Gang did not have the stomach for what needed to be done, so there may be something to dig there.

And then we get another flashback, where we see Bu-yeon, Cho-yeon’s eldest sister and the one who was supposed to be the matriarch of the Jin household, holding the magical hailstone in her hands. Jin Mu used her to find it! And she’s dead, apparently! But Jin Mu plans to find someone that can stand in for that missing daughter.

On a boat somewhere else in Daeho — again, this drama is really piss poor at establishing geography — another blind girl is headed to the capital to find a friend who stole everything from her. The friend? Mu-deok. The original Mu-deok, not the Mu-deok-with-Naksu’s soul we have right now. Is Mu-deok really Bu-yeon? Is Mu-deok the magical hailstone? Exciting!

But wait! Turns out this new girl isn’t actually blind and is the thief among the two of them. Is she going to be the fake daughter? Truly, this show is so much better when it focuses on the machinations than on the romance between the leads.

Back at the walwal night I lose my mind because the entertainers are performing a traditional Korean music version of Oh My Girl’s “Nonstop”! I can’t!

But while everyone’s partying inside, Seo Yool is moping outside, still thinking about Naksu not acknowledging him even though she knew who he was all along. Naksu finds him moping, and he confesses to her that he’s always done the right thing but now she’s holding his hand and THIS IS CHEMISTRY PEOPLE. THIS. But of course, Naksu/the writers dismiss this obvious chemistry because whatever Supreme Being is up there hates me.

Meanwhile, Park Jin, Heo Yeom, and head maidservant Kim are having a discussion about love and how sometimes you have to be straightforward about declaring your affections, and Jang Wook and Seo Yool need to get into that whole philosophy. But then again what about the pining. The delicious, delicious pining?

Remember Lady Heo from the previous episode that Jang Wook saved from a soul shifter? She’s now at the Heo residence and her maidservant tells her that her grandfather, Heo Yeom, is setting her up to be married to either Dang-gu or Seo Yool. And you know what the fucked up part is? She has more chemistry with Jang Wook.

Back at the bar, Heo Yeom is indeed setting up his granddaughter with the guys, but talks quickly turn serious when Jang Wook insists that he is open to using forbidden magic if it’s to save someone else’s life. This, despite the threat of banishment and the cutting off of his entire family from practicing magic.

And then the crown prince arrives because there’s not enough tension yet, He comes with a jar of alcohol and wishes for Jang Wook to become the best mage in the country, but the musical cues tell us that this may not be what it seems? The scene ends without anything big happening, but let’s see further down the line!

Back in the Jin household, Cho-yeon’s father comes back with apparently yet another blind girl who they feel might be Bu-yeon, and to test if she is they bring her to the same vault with the person-sucking mirror. How many years have they been doing this?

When the blind girl fails the test, the Jin matriarch sulks away to her room, where she has a sash with the exact same crest as the thief from earlier in the episode! The other girl is Bu-yeon! Or she could have stolen that from Mu-deok! We don’t know!

BUT THE SHOW KICKS ME IN THE BALLS IMMEDIATELY AFTER. Because it turns out the thief took the sash from Mu-deok! Mu-deok is Bu-yeon! The original Mu-deok anyway, not the one with Naksu in her! And no this is not f/f as much as that would be fun!

We’ll have to get back to that though because the mage of Songrim are going back to Songrim after their walwal night and Naksu runs into her first roadblock — she can no longer enter Songrim because she is not a mage there. How will their lessons continue? Of course, her desperation at not being there to teach him further comes off as her wanting to be with him ~romantically~ to the other people watching, which includes Seo Yool. Poor second lead Seo Yool.

Jang Wook doesn’t even get to enjoy his first night in Songrim as a mage because he apparently got so drunk that he had to be taken to the infirmary and be treated by Heo Yeom, who of course brings Lady Heo — her name’s Yun-ok — to look at him. And they have chemistry! Even when he’s drunk!

Outside Songrim, Naksu is still waiting to be let in, even in the pouring rain, and Seo Yool goes outside and shelters her with an umbrella and AFSNDA,FNDKFK. And when Naksu rejects him the pain in his eyes my gash.

Here have a picture of Minhyun not in pain.

The next morning, Jang Wook wakes up and realizes that it was Yun-ok and not Naksu that attended to him the night before, and he rushes to find Yun-ok before she tells everyone that he was the one that dispatched the soul shifter that was Jin Mu’s minion in the last episode. There’s a scene where he and Yun-ok talk and there’s chemistry there!

Somewhere else in the compound, Dang-gu is oblivious to the fact that Seo Yool has already been rejected and my poor, poor second lead I will protect you.

But we torpedo away immediately from that scene and we have Jang Wook advocating for himself in front of Park Jin, pointing out that while it may be exceptional that he be given leeway to have his personal servant inside Songrim, Park Jin did exceptionally keep him out of Songrim for 20 years.

Park Jin says that it would cause people to talk because even now people are saying that it was Jang Gang himself who taught Jang Wook, even if before they thought he wasn’t Jang Wook’s father. Jang Wook points this out himself, by the way, so good on him. He also realizes that insisting on having Naksu around will make people suspicious of her, and once again, good on him!

And then we get a tiresome roundabout sequence of Naksu and Jang Wook refusing to outright acknowledge their feelings for each other — and who can blame them the chemistry isn’t there — that ends with head maidservant Kim accidentally telling Naksu that Jang Wook does love her and I roll my eyes.

But anyways, it gives Naksu motivation to train to become a servant at Songrim blah blah blah let’s get a move on.