When we last left our heros, Gye Baek was still a useless kid whose father was doing badass things. The Prince is a bit less pathetic now, but still can’t do anything. And Mu Jin is in bad shape with the evil queen hostage.
You see, her father, the Prime Minister, told the goon squad to kill her if it meant getting the hit list back. However, our evil queen isn’t about to let that happen. Nope. Neither is Mu Jin, who takes a hit for the bitch. Stop sending her mixed signals!
Elsewhere, the businessman that Mu Jin had dealt with to get at the Purists has, to get out of this whole mess with his head connected to his shoulders, took Mu Jin’s family hostage! That means his second wife, step son, and Gye Baek, of course.
Only the King can save them now! Will Mu Jin sacrifice his son’s family for the sake of his promise to the former queen and for his revenge?!
Fuck yeah, you bet he will. Sorta. He wasn’t happy about it. Meanwhile, the king finally arrives… two minutes too late. Young Gye Baek shows that he can actually act as he pleads for the life of his mom and bro… only to have his father knock him out. Ha.
Thus we enter CSI Baekje, as the King calls out his trustworthy people to prove that, yes, the scroll is real, and yes, the time to act is now. Cue the dramatic music and tense battle of strategy!
Unfortunately, the evil queen can predict his every move, and the King is once again, unable to act. Boo. Gye Baek is back at his hovel… his brother no where to be seen, fretting over how to give the only mother he’s ever known a proper funeral with his meager savings.
The rich girl, of course, steps in and offers her services. Or at least her money. Meanwhile, evil queen in training is probably plotting to play both sides. She’s obviously read the script and knows that Prince Uija is about to arrive to fetch Gye Baek.
Why? Well, cause Mu Jin is on his death bed.
Why? Because he death flagged himself to death. They even point out his wound wasn’t that bad, he just seems to have finally had enough now that he kept his promise to the queen. Yup.
What I wasn’t expecting was the surprise flashback from Eungo about her past. Turns out her father spoke out about the truth way back when and was executed, throwing her mother into poverty and forcing her to sell her daughter who was then bought into the family of the spice trader matron. I still can’t tell if this means she’s sympathetic to the side of the king, or to the queen. Hmmm….
The prince catches the two kids hugging and suddenly we may have a love triangle on our hands! Excellent!
HOWEVER! Mu Jin can’t seem to die just yet, still too much drama to have! IT’S A MIRACLE! I guess the death flags were just too blatant. So he just asks to quietly retire from the world of politics, backstabbing, all that.
While the Queen knows exactly what the King is doing all the time, the King has no idea what she is doing. Poor Mu Jin, I don’t think anything was fixed. There’s going to be no peace for Baekje, these are the final years coming up for the kingdom! Well, soon.. not yet but soon… history had told us that.
Momentarily, Mu Jin is free and his son finally knows him for the hero he was. So we get father-son bonding. And Mu Jin teaches his son some of his fancy footwork. He’ll need it.
Overall, this episode is thick with political maneuvering and copious amounts of crying. I was afraid after the last episode that the whole series had come off the rails. Happily, there were no jump cuts and some actual acting for this episode, no stupid music to be heard either! Huzzah!
Now that the queen has been forced from her post, I wonder what will happen to the King and Prince now. It looks like full on rebellion is brewing.
Bring it on!
To Be Continued….
Gye Baek can be watched on Crunchyroll or Hulu. Hulu’s stream is 16 x 9 (I believe Crunchyroll’s free stream is 4 x 3). Each episode is a whopping 60+ minutes.
