Haechi Episodes 21-24

Haechi Episodes 21-24

Mini-Recap

Minister Min Jin Hun (Lee Kyung Young)arrives at the Supreme Court and declares he has a crucial witness. The young slave girl is dragged into the room. Prince Yeoninggun Lee Geum (Jung Il Woo) is stunned. The evil head inspector demands Prince Yeoninggun admit he knows the girl. He reveals the “murder the master” tattoo on the girl and declares she’s the noble murderer and the crown prince knew all about it. Minister Min adds fuel to the fire. Prince Yeoninggun removes his royal robe and places around the young girl. He tells them to stop torturing her.

Both political parties are in an uproar. Everyone blames Prince Yeoninggun.

The inspectors are sent to round up the children slaves in the camp. Inspector Park Moon Soo (Kwon Yool) is horrified when the other inspectors beat and kill the children. He tries to protect a child and is beaten.

To humiliate Prince Yeoninggun, he is transferred to another police station. The King wants to intervene but his minister declare he must not. The evil head inspector LOVES the moment, escorting Prince Yeoninggun while the public stares and whispers about him. Inspector Yeo Ji (Go Ara) and Dal Moon (Park Hoon) see Prince Yeoninggun. He sees them. He knows Yeo Ji wants to intervene and tells her not to. But it is the sight of the children slaves and the beaten Moon Soo that brings tears to Prince Yeoninggun’s eyes.

Minister Min meets with the leader of the opposite party. They come to an agreement that the crown prince must be dethroned.

The King stuns Prince Yeoninggun by showing up at his location in common clothes. The King is irritated when Prince Yeoninggun tries to take the blame. He snaps that he is the only one that can do this (the crown prince cannot have any political aspirations). He orders Prince Yeoninggun not to hang his head in defeat but instead attend a political banquet.

The King returns to the palace and hears both political parties demand the crown prince be dethroned. The King refuses to listen to their pleas.

Prince Yeoninggun attends the political banquet and makes a bold move. He declares to the nobles and all the common people around that the system is rigged against the common person. Why must the common people pay taxes to work the noble’s lands? Why must the common people be taxed to make the rich richer? He points out without the common person the entire economic system would collapse. The nobles are aghast at the statements. Yeo Ji and many others are riveted to hear a leader speak for the common man.

Word quickly spreads about Prince Yeoninggun’s declaration. The nobles and political parties are sure this will dethrone the crown prince.

But the common people are inspired by Prince Yeoninggun’s faith in them. A missive supporting the crown prince is placed on the community bulletin board WITH the author’s name tag. Other common people read and add their name tags below the missive.

The King gets word of the actions of the common people and order his guards to protect the missive and growing pile of name tags. Dal Moon and Moon Soo arrive amazed at the twin piles of name tags. They add theirs. Dal Moon realizes this ground swell of support is real and not manufactured by either political party.

Prince Yeoninggun learns of the ripple effect his words had. He visits the pile of name tags and is moved.

Yeo Ji visits the young slave girl who begs Yeo Ji to create a name tag for her and add it to the pile. Yeo Ji does so and adds her name tag to the pile.

Minister Min can’t believe that the common people are willing to risk retribution. He assures himself that the common people are fickle and will soon forget their support of Prince Yeoninggun.

Having avoided arrest due to the lies they told about their partnership the owner of the brothel and human traffic coordinator and evil Prince Milpoonggun Lee Tan (Jung Moon Sung) continue their alliance.  Prince Milpoonggun points the brothel and human traffic coordinator to talk to Dal Moon for the inside story from the commoner’s perspective. Prince Milpoonggun’s concubine is stunned to hear Dal Moon’s name. Recall they were involved years ago and she forsook Dal Moon for the power of being a concubine to power political men. Prince Milpoonggun tells his concubine that he’s glad Prince Yeoninggun wasn’t stripped of the title. He declares he wants to be the one to pull the mantle of crown prince from Prince Yeoninggun. He smiles in anticipation of the day he’ll triumph over Prince Yeoninggun.

Prince Yeoninggun visits Moon Soo to thank him for his support. As he leaves, Yeo Ji arrives and asks to speak with him privately. Yeo Ji tells Prince Yeoninggun that his stance of supporting the common person has put an even bigger target on his back. She tells him she wants to become a court lady in his palace. Prince Yeoninggun is stunned. He tells her it is dangerous. Yeo Ji knows this. He tells her that in that position she opens herself up to serving in any way commanded. Yeo Ji claims to understand. Prince Yeoninggun takes her hands and states this is only a taste. Prince Yeoninggun pulls her hands to his chest and states contact could occur. Yeo Ji stares into his eyes. Prince Yeoninggun bends his head to kiss her and murmurs other things could happen.

But Prince Yeoninggun pulls away from Yeo Ji and leaves. What they don’t know is that Moon Soo saw the close moment and wonders if Prince Yeoninggun likes Yeo Ji romantically.

Yeo Ji literally doesn’t understand why Prince Yeoninggun did those things and what he was implying. She goes to an inspector buddy who claims the actions meant the man wanted to physically fight with her. She believes him!

Yeo Ji apologizes to Prince Yeoninggun for not understanding and states they don’t have to fight. She wants to move into his palace. Prince Yeoninggun shakes his head and murmurs he can’t escape her.

On the political side, Moon Soo uncovers a murder by the police of one of its own. The police ask the evil head inspector to help cover it up. But that path isn’t smooth. Both parties get upset. Prince Yeoninggun believes he has a chance to expose corruption and wants to seize the moment.

 
Dal Moon rejects evil Prince Milpoonggun’s offer to work for him. Not taking rejection well, Prince Milpoonggun swings a sword at Dal Moon who catches it in his hand. Prince Milpoonggun’s concubine (and Dal Moon’s former love interest) breaks the scuffle between the men. Later she begs Dal Moon to help make Prince Milpoonggun the next King. Dal Moon is put in a bind when Prince Yeoninggun asks him to stay close to Prince Milpoonggun.

Minister Min tells Prince Yeoninggun that he should stop stirring the pot and instead act like he does. Prince Yeoninggun tells himself he’ll never act like Minister Min.

With a evil grin Prince Milpoonggun tells Prince Yeoninggun that payback is coming and it will unseat him from the position of crown prince.

My Thoughts

Though officially the crown prince cannot be political, the political swirl around Prince Yeoninggun is astonishing. Writer Kim Yi Young continues to drives home every episode is that it takes a village to become King and stay in power. The political factions made an alliance against Prince Yeoninggun but the unexpected support of the common person up-ended everything.  Then the political quagmire sucked at Prince Yeoninggun, the King, et al. Writer Kim continues that smart tactic of allowing both sides to win some and lose some. I never know which way things will go.

* Evil Prince Milpoonggun cited the Buddhist concept of karma and declared he’d be the one to bring down Prince Yeoninggun. He relished telling Prince Yeoninggun that something negative would impact him soon.

* Minister Min seized the opportunity reinsert himself as opposition leader. He thought he had Prince Yeoninggun wrapped up but the will of the people changed everything. But during the corruption scandal, Minister Min seemed to regain strong footing. He boldly told Prince Yeoninggun to follow his lead instead of being noble and morally correct.

* The King forcefully told Prince Yeoninggun to do as he said. He ordered Prince Yeoninggun to hold his head high and attend the banquet. That surprised me. There are moments when the King’s political savvy has saved Prince Yeoninggun. That’s much more interesting than Prince Yeoninggun devising every escape route. Little did he know that Prince Yeoninggun’s compelling speech about Government’s need to protect not trample the common man would tip the balance. The King witnessed a common man bow to Prince Yeoninggun and declare the Prince Yeoninggun would make a great king one day. The King must know that Prince Yeoninggun is uber qualified to take the crown, but doesn’t want to believe that Prince Yeoninggun is plotting against him. However, events make it look otherwise at times.

Prince Yeoninggun Lee Geum (Jung Il Woo) boldly spoke for the common person. The King told him to attend the banquet. Prince Yeoninggun couldn’t help himself, he HAD to tell the smug nobles that the common people were the backbone of society and their elevated status was built on the backs of others. No one had ever spoken for the common person and Prince Yeoninggun’s speech received a ground swell of support. I found his words applicable today. Money and power rule the world from the top of the triangle but it is the everyday person that is the foundation of the triangle of life. Prince Yeoninggun couldn’t believe it when Yeo Ji was told and believed that his advances were an invitation to fight. He didn’t correct her mistake. While Prince Yeoninggun is smart as a whip, he can’t anticipate every counter move the opposition makes. It continuously puts him on the defensive. Is he the most doubted pre-king candidate in historical drama history?

Inspector Yeo Ji (Go Ara) realized Prince Yeoninggun needed her support inside the palace. The crown prince’s continuous swirl of opponents made Yeo Ji decide Prince Yeoninggun needed her near him. She didn’t object to his physical contact. But she allowed her gut instinct (that Prince Yeoninggun liked her) to be overwritten by the nonsensical explanation that the physical contact meant the man was asking for a fight. I shake my head. For an investigator to not know duties of a court lady does…having a hard time believing this. In the end, all that did nothing to dissuade her from wanting to protect Prince Yeoninggun while serving in the palace. The way things go sour quickly for Prince Yeoninggun, having Yeo Ji there is probably a good idea.

I rank these episodes (on a scale from 1-10) as excellent (ep 21-22) and very good (ep 23-24). My rating chart is below.

About KJT (aka kjtamuser)

Asian drama fan. I watch and blog dramas on https://kjtamusings.wordpress.com/.

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Tagged with: episode 21, episode 22, episode 23, episode 24, Haechi, Jung Il Woo
Posted in Haechi