Episode 3 - I'm Behind You
In the dungeon, Princess Myeongeun is seconds away from slicing Ra On’s throat for her imposter love letters, but just as she raises the sword to strike, Yeong’s voice commands, “Stop!” Everyone freezes at the announcement of the Crown Prince, and Ra On cranes her neck to get a look at him. But his face is obscured by light, and the guard orders Ra On to lower her head in respect. In the end, she doesn’t get to see his face at all.
Yeong says that the Princess will hurt herself by holding the sword that way, and takes it out of her hands. Then he demands in a booming voice to drag Ra On to the Court of Justice, and even Princess Myeongeun says fearfully that nine out of ten people die when they’re sent there. Yeong plans to get to the bottom of this crime and even involve the king, and the princess suddenly balks at the idea of having the entire palace know about her embarrassment. She begs for Yeong to withdraw his order, and the cheeky glint reappears in his eye for a fleeting second before he turns concerned eyes on his sister. He tells Myeongeun that it won’t make her feel better to kill this eunuch, and that she’s not capable of taking a life.
As Yeong leads his sister away, Ra On cries out on her hands and knees that she’s genuinely sorry for ghostwriting those love letters. She says that it never occurred to her how much that could hurt someone, and says through tears that she’s deeply sorry for what she’s done. Byung Yun asks the prince why he doesn’t reveal his identity to Ra On when (s)he’s bound to find out, and Yeong just answers back that in the process he’ll gain one more subject on his side. He raises an eyebrow at the disapproving court ladies who pass by, and admits that he’d be sad if Ra On looked at him with those eyes.
It's the day when the Eunuch examination result will be given. Ra On expects her result to be failed, but she passed the exam and finally becomes an Eunuch. She asks her superior as to how can she passed when she leaves her paper blank, then she knows that the Crown Prince is the one who actually passed her. The question, given by Eunuch Jang, names the prince’s ailment as a hunger felt by someone who is lacking for nothing in this world. Yeong thinks back to the night that Ra On had guessed this about him on their first meeting, and offered him a chicken leg as a token of affection from someone who was rich in heart. With a smile, Yeong stamps Ra On’s blank answer with a passing mark. Eunuch Jang gapes, and Yeong says he’s already heard the answer to this question from Ra On, and when Eunuch Jang asks what it was, he simply says, “Chicken leg.”
Yeong and Byung Yun find Ra On slumped over in the courtyard, and Yeong chides Puppy for not greeting its master properly. Ra On warns that she’s in a biting mood and suddenly gets up to go demand answers from the crown prince, and the boys race to block her.
She’s easily convinced that she wouldn’t be able to meet the crown prince anyway, and she slumps back down in defeat, grumbling that the prince ruined everything. Yeong huffs as she says that she has no right to become a eunuch, but now she’s trapped in the palace, no thanks to the prince.
Ra On starts her first official day of work as Eunuch Hong, and she’s stationed in the palace of the king’s consort. Royal Consort Park is ill, and asks Ra On to look after her young daughter, Princess Yeong On. Yeong visits Royal Consort Park. He flashes back to the time he was mourning his mother’s death seven years ago, when Consort Park had passed along a message from his mother—that he should cry when he truly needs to, and that he should borrow Consort Park’s embrace in place of his mother’s arms.
Ra On keeps Princess Yeongon busy in the garden, and tells her that these flowers in the outdoors need just a drop of water and sunshine to grow. It makes her think of Silver Spoon (Crown Prince) as she mutters aloud, “If only his personality were half as beautiful as his face…” and to her mortification, Yeong has heard every word and asks her to finish the thought. She’s startled. He puffs up when Ra On shows an interest in what exactly he does in the palace, and she points out that she’s seen him as a eunuch, a guard, and now a playboy. He scowls at that last one, but he’s amused when Ra On warns him “as a friend” not to get caught slacking off, and he asks when they became friends. She asks what their relationship is if not friends, and he answers, “Master and Puppy.” She grouses that she has a perfectly normal name in Hong Sam Nom, and asks huffily what his name is, then, and he stops in his tracks, thinking of how everyone in the palace simply addresses him as “Your majesty” and “His majesty the crown prince,” never by name. Yeong doesn't answer and leaves her.
That evening, the king’s head eunuch comes to tell Yeong that his father wants to see him. Yeong tells him to come up with an excuse and say they never saw each other, but the eunuch says the king came here looking for him the other night, and the eunuch spotted Yeong coming to see his father but stop short of going inside. He asks how long father and son will be staring at each other’s backs. That seems to move Yeong, because he goes to see the king straightaway. Yeong seems disappointed and weary to hear his father’s paranoid talk, as the king admits to going crazy and not knowing what is real and what is a dream anymore. The king tells Yeong to prepare himself, because he’s going to make him prince regent very soon. However, Yeong firmly says he doesn’t want to become regent, but the king slams his hand on the table and says, “It’s not a position you take because you like it! Before being my son, are you not my crown prince?” Yeong answers stoically, “Yes. I had no choice in becoming crown prince. But is it not my choice what kind of crown prince I become?” With that, Yeong bows and walks out, his eyes brimming with angry tears. He leaves the king shaking even more than before, clearly at his wit’s end and overtaken by paranoia.
The nexy day, Royal Consort Park sends Ra On to the main palace with a letter for the king, and on her way out, Princess Yeongon runs up with a written note, urging her to please deliver that letter from her mother to her father. Ra On promises to do so, except when she gets to the king’s palace, the eunuch there already has a prepared answer for her to take back. She quickly discovers that this is the routine—the consort’s letters never reach the king, and all that ever gets sent back is a blank page in reply. Ra On decides to take the letter back to try another way, but she’s discovered by the queen, who slaps Ra On across the face and tells her to shut up and take the reply that the eunuch gave her. Ra On clutches her stinging face as tears slip out, and from the courtyard, Yoon Sung happens to witness the whole exchange. Yoon Sung asks Ra On to go somewhere with him, acting as if it’s urgent business, and then deposits her at the foot of a large tree, where he suggests playing hooky because she looks like she could use a breather. She smiles and leans back like he’s doing, and muses that Yoon Sung always seems to show up whenever she’s having a hard time. He says that’s called fate, and that he even knows what she’s thankful for when it comes to him: “Pretending not to know,” he says. She’s surprised that he knows that, and Yoon Sung says that it’s a man’s duty to pretend not to notice when a woman has a secret. Ra On balks at the reference to women, and Yoon Sung quickly adds that it also applies to men and the secrets they want to keep. Ra On thanks him for not asking questions, and Yoon Sung tells her to hurry up and enjoy slacking off. They lean back and enjoy the afternoon nap.
That night, Ra On skulks around the king’s palace wondering how to complete her mission properly, when she accidentally bumps into another eunuch who’s on his way to deliver scrolls to the king. Ra On manages to slip the consort’s letter into one of the scrolls as she helps clean up the mess, and that night it reaches the king. In the morning, Ra On runs to Royal Consort Park with happy news of the king’s reply, written himself and even scented, but when Consort Park opens the letter, it’s blank like all the others. She sighs that maybe she shouldn’t bother the king any longer, thinking that this is confirmation of his true intentions, and asks Ra On to burn all of the king’s blank replies so she can let go.
Yeong and Byung Yun find Ra On sitting outside with all the blank letters, pouting in disappointment over the king’s non-replies. Yeong recalls seeing the stack of letters in Royal Consort Park’s room and says these aren’t the king’s replies because her letters never reach the king anyway. Ra On says this last one was different, because she made sure to deliver it properly. What she doesn’t understand is why the king called her aside to give her the reply if it was going to be blank like all the others. That night, Yeong actually goes to ask his father in person to visit Royal Consort Park because she isn’t feeling well. But the king just offers to send a doctor and deflects, saying that the queen is very sensitive right now because she’s pregnant. Yeong actually smirks at his father’s cowardly answer and asks directly, “What are you afraid of? What are you so afraid of that you cannot do anything—no, that you do not do anything?!” He accuses his father of doing the same when his mother passed away.
In flashback, Yeong had run crying to the king in the wake of his mother’s death, asking his father to explain why she died. The king said she had an unknown illness and died a natural death, but Yeong had overheard people saying otherwise. He asked who would want his mother killed, but the king warned him never to speak of it again. Back in the present, Yeong shouts that the king did nothing and told him in this very spot to just wait. “Even if it changed nothing to come forward, even if it were a futile endeavor, you should have done something instead of hiding in here, trembling! Because you… are the king of this nation of Joseon,” he cries, angry tears spilling out. The indictment from his son shakes the king deeply, and yet he does nothing, again.
Ra On hesitates to burn the last of the king’s letters, especially since this one smells so fragrant. Byung Yun doesn’t see why she’s so hung up on someone else’s letters, but she catches his interest when she mentions that it smells of crabapples. Ra On finally decides to torch the last letter, when suddenly Byung Yun gets an idea and flings a dagger across the room, He relights the candle and starts to burn the letter slightly, and the writing appears like magic on the blank page. Ra On’s eyes widen, and Byung Yun explains that it’s apple vinegar, which only shows up when you burn the page. Ra On is in such a hurry that she runs right into Yeong on her way out, and tells him happily that the king’s reply wasn’t a blank letter, but a secret one. She runs to tell Royal Consort Park that the king is waiting to see her right now, and shows her the letter eagerly. As Consort Park heads out to meet the king, we hear his reply to her in voiceover, calling himself a powerless king and husband, and a pathetic father. He writes that he hopes she’ll forget him someday, but every night he still goes go the garden they used to frequent.
From the look in the king’s eyes when he sees Consort Park approach, it’s clear that he’s still in love with her and has been waiting as long as she has for this reunion.Yeong and Ra On watch from across the pond and Yeong thinks back to his argument with his father earlier that day. After he’d gotten up to leave, the king had finally blurted out, “I cannot do anything! I must not do anything! That is the only way you won’t be hurt! When I tried to be king, I lost two thousand of my people, and when I tried to be king, I lost my queen! My teacher, my friends—they’ve all left. This is the only way I know not to lose my people—doing nothing!” Ra On watches the king with a smile and wonders why, even as the powerful king, he felt the need to hide his feelings and send a letter in secret. Yeong thinks to himself, “I only came to know it now—that before he is the king wearing the crown, he is a husband to the wife he loves, and my only father.”
The next morning in court, the king appears to be back at the height of his paranoia, arguing that he meets nothing but opposition from his ministers, The king suggests they’d be happier if the prime minister were to rule in his place, and then remembers that he has a crown prince, who is then called to be present at court this instant. On the king’s orders, Yeong marches to the palace half-dressed as usual, his eunuch trailing after him in a frantic attempt to finish clothing him before they arrive. Yeong kneels before the king, who announces to his ministers that the country is suffering because of his incompetence as a ruler, so he will make the crown prince regent, to rule in his place. Yeong looks terrified, and the ministers start whispering and begging for the king to take back the order. But to everyone’s surprise, Prime Minister Kim approves of the idea, as long as the crown prince is willing.
When asked what he thinks, Yeong says that he’s still a child afraid of leaving his parents’ arms, and asks in a trembling voice why the king is giving him such a difficult responsibility. The ministers whisper that the prince is shaking just like his father, and Yeong looks every bit as scared as the king. But then… his expression suddenly hardens and he says assuredly, “But on second thought, I don’t see why I can’t do it.” Lol, you faker! Yeong sits upright and says in a loud, confident voice that he will happily accept the king’s command.
Father and son exchange emotional glances, and then we flash back to the night before, when Yeong had gone back to tell his father that he’d like to share his father’s burden. Yeong asked the king to give him the regency, but in return, he asked for one thing: “When I become weak and scared, I need a father I can lean on.” Filled with emotion, the king called out to him by name: “Yeong-ah.” And back in the present, they smile at each other in court, the king looking on with proud tears in his eyes.
Ra On gets reassigned yet again, this time to the palace of the crown prince. She cringes when her first assignment is to return some books to the prince’s private library. She tiptoes in and takes a look around, and is surprised to see Yeong there. This time he’s dressed in his dragon robes, but she can only see his face through the bookshelves, and chides him for being in the prince’s private space. Another eunuch sees her in there and warns her to get out, so she urges Yeong to come out too, before they get caught by the prince. He hesitates, but then he starts to follow her out, remembering her words that they were friends now.
He steps out into the open and then calls out to her, “You asked what my name was.” She turns around to face him, and it takes a moment for the shock to settle in. He walks up to her with purpose and then breaks into a smile. “It’s Lee Yeong,” he says, “my name.”
Episode 4 - After the Play Ends
Ra On seems to take it as a joke, but when she realized that everything is real, she then goes to ask for forgiveness. She asks him to just kill her and Yeong asks whether he means it and instead Ra On says to save her. Yeong then says with a grin, "Kill you, or save you—are those my only two options… even though we’re friends?”
But apparently Ra-on only hears that as a threat. Even she asked Eunuch Jang to transfer her anywhere as long as it is not Crown Prince's place. Eunuch Jang takes it personally, thinking that it's because he is not good nor kind enough. Ra On explains that it's not because of him, but suddenly a voice comes out, "Then is it me?" says Yeong popping out from his chamber. Yeong then told everyone to go out, except for Ra On to help him with the dress.
Yeong then asks Ra On whether she regrets getting close to him and of course Ra On says she regrets it much without knowing that Silver Spoon is actually the Crown Prince of Joseon. Ra-on stammers that if he’d just told her the truth from the start, she’d never have dared to become his friend.
He counters that that was his reason for not telling her, because he knew she’d react that way if she knew he were the crown prince, and he even apologizes for not telling her sooner. She asks if he’s not intending to punish her, and he says, “When it’s just the two of us, you can treat me as a friend.” And then on second thought, he revises it into an order and commands it.
The China's envoy will come to Joseon and it's time for Yeong to show off what he got for them. Meanwhile the Prime Minister Kim plans to have the envoy to see how lacking the Crown Prince is. In the afternoon, Yeong asks Ra On if she misses life outside the palace, and she sighs that she misses the activity of the bustling marketplace, and the steam of freshly made rice cakes in the street. Yeong eagerly offers to grant her wishes and take her outside the palace, and she lights up with excitement.
But then in the same breath, her smile turns into a scowl and she says that Eunuch Jang already warned her not to fall for this. She tells him that she was told repeatedly not to ever follow him outside the palace or let him out of her sight. Yeong pouts and then immediately fakes a stomachache, but Ra On doesn’t fall for that either. Thus, Yeong stomps off to the library in a snit and tasks Ra On with finding a book for him. She scours every shelf but can’t find it, and asks him to remember the title to help her out. But when he turns around to face her, it’s her wisecracking classmate, wearing the prince’s robes who says, “When it’s just the two of us, you can treat me as a friend,” not even knowing what it means. Apparently Yeong told him to say that (lol).
On that day, Yeong actually goes to find Teacher Dasan to ask for his advice as Yeong pointed out incisively that he was looking to be seen as a diplomatic equal to China, when in reality he and the King couldn’t even control their own prime minister. Teacher Dasan’s solution was simple: cut off the prime minister’s head. Yeong was disappointed, and said that he would’ve sought out an assassin rather than wasting his time with Teacher Dasan if he thought that murdering his political opponent were the solution. But when he turned to go, Teacher Dasan had called out after him that they needn’t always shed blood: “Why would you need poison when you could kill with sweet honey?”
On the way home, Yeong was encountered by rain and so is Ra On who happens to be instructed to help Yoon Sung with the festival needs for the King's birthday and envoy from China. It is then when Ra On puts the woman robes on her head to avoid the rain. The robes actually catches her attention but she ends up leaving because Yoon Sung notices her. However, Yoon Sung bought the robes in one set, saying it is to be given to someone special. And when he saw that Ra On was getting drench, he asks her to just wear it to avoid the rain. Ra On rejects at first because she knows it is for someone special and she doesn't dare to use it. Yoon Sung says that it is true but the time is not right, he will give it later when the person is ready to accept it, refering to her indirectly. Yeong notices the voice sounds similar and asks Ra On to lift up her head in which Ra On turns her back because she is shocked when Yoon Sung suddenly comes over and says that "She is my woman, she must be shocked to see Crown Prince in such an unexpected place." which finally ease Ra On.
At night, while Yeong ponders those words and suddenly gets an idea. He heads to the room where all the musical instruments are kept, and thinks to himself that if he can bring them to their knees with song and dance, he needn’t use his sword at all. Who knows that the next day, he invites all the best gisaeng in the country and gives them the choreography for them to show on the day of King's birthday celebration. He commands Ra On too to follow him through and take notes on each steps.
The night before the celebration. Ra On asks Yeong about the performance after the last dance, what his plans actually and Yeong states that the real performance will begin after that and there will be someone who will perform but he, himself is not aware of that, as he smiles and scolds Ra On for her not working hard enough to take notes on the dance steps. She insists that she only needs to see a dance once to know it, which must be because of her time spent in the performance troupe. Yeong is amazed to see that she really does recall every step, but by the time he’s done checking it, she’s fallen asleep at her desk. He just smiles at her.
Ra On stirs awake the next morning, and is beyond horrified when she wakes up in the prince’s bed. Worse yet, Yeong is slumped over his desk in front of her. She scrambles to get out of there and stoops down to pick up her hat, but when she gets close to Yeong’s face, she can’t help but stare, captivated by his features. She smiles, taking her sweet time to stare, but the moment is interrupted when Eunuch Jang arrives outside to wake the prince.
Ra On is so startled that she hiccups, and Eunuch Jang wonders if that’s some kind of new signal from the prince. She’s got nowhere to hide and possibly the slowest reaction time in all of history, and just ducks down as Eunuch Jang opens the doors…But just in time, Yeong calls out for Eunuch Jang to come back later because he’s going to sleep some more. Yeong slowly opens his eyes and smiles the most adorable languid smile ever. He musses Ra On’s hair, muttering that a man shouldn’t scare so easily. That just starts her hiccups all over again.
The night of the performance, everything goes smoothly till the last performance when suddenly the dancer disappears. It turns out that the Queen commands the head Gisaeng to disappear from the performance and she wants to ruin the performance prepared by the Crown Prince. However, Ra On is reminded by Byung Yun to support and help Yeong in her best capability. She remembers Byung Yun tells her about some certain people who wants to pick point on Yeong and so, she decides to let her hair down, changes her clothes and she comes out as the last dancer with her face covered.
Yeong is curious as to who she is, because her dance reminds him of his mother who dances in the rain. Yeong is captivated and mesmerized totally by Ra On performance. When the performance is done, Yeong finally commands Prime Minister Kim to give speech for the King and it shocks everyone as there is no one who is brave enough to tell Prime Minister Kim on what to do. In voiceover, we hear Yeong tell Ra-on that after the dance is when the real show would begin. “Someone… a clown who doesn’t know in his wildest dreams that he’s about to make an appearance.”
Prime Minister Kim opens the scroll and glowers, but he’s forced to press on and read the flowery message, which honors the birth of their king, and declares his people’s devoted allegiance and gratitude to their almighty ruler, asking him to live a long life. Then he raises a toast and leads everyone in a reverent bow down on his knees, as Yeong looks down at him with a satisfied smirk. It’s awesome, and the ministers know they’ve been outsmarted, because the Chinese ambassador has just witnessed firsthand the extent of the king’s power over his people, and will get approval for whatever he wants.
Ra On uses that moment to slip away before she gets caught, but as soon as the celebration is over, Yeong is hot on her heels in search of the mysterious dancer, wondering who she could be. She’s still barefoot and cuts her foot while running away, and she pauses for a moment, thinking that she’s in the clear. But Yeong spots her from behind and begins to approach, and she doesn’t realize that he’s getting closer and closer.
He’s seconds away from spotting her, when suddenly a hand yanks her around a corner. It’s Yoon Sung, of course, and he pulls her into the bushes. Ra On’s eyes turn to saucers, but Yoon Sung shushes her just as Yeong rounds the corner and looks in their direction.
Personal Thoughts:
This drama is getting so good each episodes and it's really a super refreshing story and I really admit that both of the actor and actress are such a great talent in acting world. Now I understand why Song Ji Hyo even becomes fan of Park Bo Gum and she states about how great he is after his series in Reply 1988. Overall, you have to see this drama because well, you're gonna enjoy it. The story line is somewhat easy to understand and I really like when they focus on the motherly and fatherly side of the storyline and I praised both Park Bo Gum and Kim Yoo Jung for their acting!
Anyway, I researched the historical notes and it was stated that Crown Prince Hyomyeong died at the age of 20 after his 3 years reign. This is not shocking actually as right at the start, the story tell us that the fortune teller says that the Crown Prince has a short span of life and was destined to die young. However, the history did tell us that Crown Prince Hyomyeong is used to be called the flower boy in Joseon Era and one of a great ruler who uses literature and arts as the basics to rule the country. Besides, Hyomyeong also loves to dance and I am quite sure we are going to see the Bombastic dance again in the drama soon after! Hopefully this drama won't tell the story till Hyomyeong died, instead the love story itself, so we all have a happy ending scene. Although it will be hard since an Eunuch and a Crown Prince are not meant to be together.
