Six Flying Dragons: Episode 37

by HeadsNo2

I know there’s been a lot of Bang-won up here lately, but there’s a lot of Bang-won in this show, which makes any attempt to avoid him a futile effort. So here’s the man himself, doing his best impression of someone who’s actually paying attention and not, say, plotting the domination of a newly minted nation. He’ll need a lot more mace-wielding muscle to do his bidding now that the last roadblock to a new Joseon is gone, but something tells me he’ll get his way eventually.

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EPISODE 37 RECAP

When Bang-won confronts Jung Do-jeon about how there was never a role for him in his great cause to begin with, the first part of Jung’s answer shouldn’t surprise him: “No, there was never a role for you.”

But the second part does when Jung Do-jeon adds, “But you created one. Your killing of Poeun will become your role.”

With Sa-kwang’s sword held to his neck, Moo-hyul tells her of Jung Mong-joo’s death, and more importantly, that her king is safe. Sa-kwang takes the news that he might be dethroned soon as good news, and drops her sword.

“Why didn’t you kill me?” she finally asks. Moo-hyul just shrugs that she had multiple opportunities to kill him that she didn’t use, so he returned the favor. Her next question is much more introspective, as she asks why he lives his life wielding a sword.

“To protect those dear to me,” Moo-hyul answers gravely. “In order to protect… my dream.” This is another thing Sa-kwang can relate to, since she too wants to protect someone dear to her.

Which is why, when asked if she’ll take revenge for Poeun’s death, she replies that she won’t—all she wants is for life to be like it was before her dear king took the throne. And he wouldn’t have taken it in the first place if it weren’t for Jung Mong-joo, so, good riddance.

“As long as no one means to harm me, I shall not fight against anyone,” she proclaims weakly, before attempting to step outside the cave. The attempt fails and she slumps to the ground, unconscious.

King Gongyang knows his days are numbered even before he’s visited by Jung Do-jeon & Co. Jung Do-jeon makes good on his plan to declare Jung Mong-joo a traitor and hang his decapitated head in the market, figuring that he may as well use his friend’s death to further their cause unless he can magically bring him back to life.

Though the king knows full well what really happened, he stamps the royal seal on Jung Do-jeon’s proclamation that Poeun planned to commit treason, which also absolves Bang-won of any wrongdoing when all he did was execute a traitor.

But the king stops Jung Do-jeon momentarily when he reaches for the newly minted royal command to ask when he’s going to be dethroned. Without skipping a beat, Jung Do-jeon tells him that there’s a proper time for everything, which the king takes surprisingly well—he never wanted to be king, anyway. (Does he think deposed kings sit around eating bonbons all day?)

Master Hong is agape to see Bang-ji mimicking the Goksan Swordsmanship method he picked up from fighting Sa-kwang, though he doesn’t get long to dwell on it when Jung Do-jeon calls for the younger dragons (including Bang-won) to gather.

But this meeting is all about damage control, as he charges Yeon-hee and Boon-yi with using their respective contacts to spread rumors absolving Lee Seong-gye of any part in his son’s doing. He wants to heft the responsibility of Poeun’s death on Bang-won alone, so that his father can be free to lead their new nation.

Understanding that this means Bang-won will have to be cut out of their group, Boon-yi attempts to stand up for him by claiming his actions were more than justified. Jung Do-jeon is not of the same mind, and adds that if they had planned to use force to achieve their goals, they could’ve done that the night they attacked General Jo at Dohwa Manor.

“It is a heartbreaking matter to establish a new nation by the sword. Bang-won must take responsibility in his own way, and we must endure it in our own way,” he offers sagely. When Young-kyu gets riled up for Bang-won’s sake, it’s Bang-won who talks him down, seemingly siding with Jung Do-jeon.

“He’s right, that I killed Poeun. ‘I made the decision to kill Poeun on my own. I, Lee Bang-won, murdered Poeun Jung Mong-joo, Goryeo’s last loyal subject. General Lee Seong-gye had nothing to do with it.'” That’s how Jung Do-jeon wants the word to be spread, and Bang-won understands because he’s ready to take responsibility.

But on the inside, he thinks, “That’s how I differ from father and Sambong. I do not avoid responsibility.” Boon-yi follows him outside out of concern, though he insists to her and his wife that he’s fine. He only wants to know who’s littering the market with posters calling for his execution.

Lee Seong-gye’s fourth son LEE BANG-GAN comes into town looking for Bang-won, though he certainly doesn’t look or act like any of his other, more refined brothers.

In front of Jung Mong-joo’s severed head, Lee Saek and sinister Minister Woo curse Jung Do-jeon. To his credit, Jung Do-jeon takes all this in stride, and while he acknowledges Lee Saek’s prediction that he might meet a crueler fate than Poeun, he adds menacingly, “You will not be around to see it… because you do not have much time left.”

Jung Do-jeon is losing track of all the ministers he wants impeached before Lee Seong-gye is crowned king, and the stress seems to be manifesting itself physically—he clutches his stomach and doubles over in pain, before quickly recovering.

Bang-ji waits outside while he stops at an inn for a bite to eat, but Jung Do-jeon’s meal is interrupted when candlelight flickers from the room next door and a familiar voice calls to him. “Yeon-hyang!” he says in shock, going to the now open door.

He has so many questions for the woman he once knew as a court maid, but aside from her part in Nameless, he asks whether she knows her own son is waiting outside. She knows, but she’s not here to see her son. She’s here to see him.

While Bang-ji gets in a momentary tussle with Gil Sun-mi outside, Yeon-hyang attempts to make Nameless relevant again by saying a lot of contradictory things about how they’ve even helped Jung Do-jeon’s cause. The rift between them started with the land reformation, which we know to be patently untrue.

In what begins to sound eerily like an argument pitting communism against capitalism, Yeon-hyang defends the idea that human ambition needs an environment in which it can thrive (i.e. people being able to gobble up as much land as money can buy), while Jung Do-jeon defends the idea that an even distribution of land will prevent anyone from taking more than is their due.

To Yeon-hyang’s personal-greed-breeds-growth argument, Jung Do-jeon asks how much that ideology has helped Goryeo thus far. Oh, it hasn’t? That’s what he thought.

“From now on, the world will be different. The place where humans chase after greed will be taken by Confucian scholars. A nation where all citizens are virtuous, where they will not steal from others, and where they will not take from others to fill their own bellies. That is the nation I will create.” It’s only after this that Yeon-hyang understands he won’t change his mind, but that won’t stop Nameless from doing what they can to stop him.

Afterward, Jung Do-jeon kind of broaches the Yeon-hyang subject with Bang-ji, who already seems to know. He’s going to do his best to forget her like his sister said, though he’s unaware that his mother stole a glimpse of him outside the inn before she departed.

“It’s war,” she tells Gil Sun-mi, before asking where Sa-kwang is. Moo-hyul finds himself wondering the same thing as he returns to the cave where he left her, only to find a note she’s left behind, written on a length of her skirts. Unable to read, he just folds it away for now.

The day finally comes for the change Jung Do-jeon has been hoping for since the beginning: King Gongyang bows before them to hand over the royal seal, which they then present to Lee Seong-gye along with their pleas for him to take the throne.

Lee Seong-gye finally takes up the seal and the crown, while Lee Saek is exiled, and the other sinister ministers are tortured and sent off to the same fate. Along with Lady Kang, who is posthumously known as QUEEN SINDEOK, Lee Seong-gye officially becomes KING TAEJO, the founder and first king of Joseon. (Though we haven’t made the Goryeo-Joseon switch in name yet, the transition didn’t happen in a day.)

Former King Gongyang goes into exile with more dignity than is usually afforded, riding on a horse rather than in a rolling cage. He’s joined by Sa-kwang, whom Moo-hyul spots in the caravan trailing behind the king.

They exchange a long look, and he smiles. In order to protect her, he keeps her true identity a secret from the others.

Official posts in the new state council are granted to King Taejo’s closest supporters (and Daddy Min, since he’s technically family), ending with Jung Do-jeon as Prime Minister, second only to the king himself.

King Taejo is eager for Jung Do-jeon to start implementing some of his bigger changes to their new nation, but is most excited at the idea of the gwageo, or civil service exams that give anyone the chance to take up office should they pass. (Nepotism ran rampant when it came to official appointments in Goryeo, though that didn’t change all that much with Joseon’s civil service exams—they were still dominated by noble families, since only noble children could afford the luxury of learning how to read in order to take the exams. Bang-won’s son, King Sejong, would do a lot to change this with the creation of Hangul.)

While Jung Do-jeon works to enact these changes and get the word out to what must be a very confused citizenry, he also tasks Yeon-hee with poring through records from the Silla Dynasty to find any trace of Nameless there. He also wants her to become close with Queen Sindeok, I’m guessing as a way to keep tabs on the royal family.

She asks whether it’s not too late for Jung Do-jeon to take Bang-won back into the fold, since he’s been building up a formidable force since being cast out from Jung’s good graces.

Bang-won is surprised when Ha Ryun pays him a visit dressed up in ministerial garb, even though Ha Ryun defends his official appointment as being one of necessity—with so many ministers resigning from their posts in protest, they had to take what they could get, and he’s it.

No sooner does he remind Bang-won that his father still doesn’t wish to see him does Da-kyung come in, chattering about Jung Do-jeon taking on more positions/titles. Ha Ryun jokes that Jung need only to take command of the military in order to gain absolute power, which causes the sour expression on Bang-won’s face to tighten even more.

Scholars start to go missing, especially those scholars who rallied for Bang-won’s execution. Thanks to Boon-yi’s people though, he comes upon a map that was circulating amongst those scholars, which points toward a place called Tongseong.

Boon-yi, Moo-hyul, and Bang-won follow the map to Tongseong, finding nothing of note. Moo-hyul stops when he spots something on a nearby hill, though we don’t see what it is.

Meanwhile, King Taejo admonishes Jung Do-jeon for eating and living poorly in the time leading up to the first civil service examination, but is in for a surprise when he’s turned away at the door by a concerned Shin-jeok and Officer Nam. Of course, he just pushes past them to see what the fuss is about…

…Just as Bang-won and Boon-yi climb up to see what Moo-hyul’s looking at: a tree decorated with gats from the sadaebu as well as Sungkyunkwan scholars. The meaning, that they’ve all literally hung up their hats in resignation, is clear.

Bang-won tasks Moo-hyul with following one of the scholars who hangs his hat on the tree, while we find King Taejo sitting amongst the vast emptiness that was supposed to be the civil service exams. Not one person showed up.

As Yeon-hee tells Jung Do-jeon that scholars have gone missing, likely in relation to the eerie civil service exams, Moo-hyul and Boon-yi report their disturbing findings to Bang-won. At least four hundred scholars have made camp outside of the capital, with more arriving every day.

Bang-won knows it’s a revolt waiting to happen, and gives Boon-yi permission to tell Jung Do-jeon exactly what she told him. She does, and Jung Do-jeon knows that it’s their way of protesting the current government and the royal court.

Unfortunately, since gathering en masse isn’t illegal, there’s no action Jung Do-jeon can take against them. They’ll only grow more dangerous to their cause as their numbers grow though, so all he can do is try to think of a way to stop them from doing more damage.

Jo Joon is ready to use force to bring the scholars’ village (known by the people as Domundong) down, but lacks just cause to do so. Laws are for plebes, man.

King Taejo’s sons, all officially princes now, greet their father along with their wives. The only sons missing are third song Bang-eui, who has an actual reason, and eldest son Bang-woo, who doesn’t. Knowing how much Bang-woo opposed his father ascending the throne in the first place, this isn’t a surprise.

Outside, Jung Do-jeon greets Bang-won by his title as Grand Prince, the formality of which has changed their entire way of being toward each other. It’s much different for Bang-won to offer his help to the cause as a prince, and much harder for Jung to refuse, even though Bang-won’s solution to the Domundong problem is for him to go and personally convince the scholars to cease and desist.

The irony of Poeun’s murderer going to convince Poeun’s supporters to stop supporting their dead teacher isn’t lost on Jung Do-jeon, but he can’t very well say no. It’s just that he doesn’t seem to have listened fully when Bang-won said that he’d convince those that he could. As for those that he can’t convince, well, they can’t be allowed to stay in the village.

Even Da-kyung tries to talk her husband out of it, and tries in vain to remind him that he’s Public Enemy No. 1 to those scholars he seeks to convince. Bang-won just smiles, hinting at a deeper plan.

Bang-won lets no one in on his thought process, and merely takes a small army to track down the village. Even Ha Ryun’s reasoned voice does nothing to sway the prince, who seems inordinately preoccupied with the direction the wind is blowing.

To his credit, Jung Do-jeon defends Bang-won’s actions to his father, claiming that he’s just trying to show that he’s trying And even if he fails, no harm done, right? (Did he forget who Bang-won is?)

As expected, Bang-won is not greeted fondly by those scholars guarding the gates of Domundong. They’re sure that there’s nothing Poeun’s murderer can say that will convince them, and Bang-won seems to be of the same mindset as he tells his men to set the place on fire.

“Did you not want to persuade them?” Ha Ryun asks in shock. “I will persuade them after I draw them out. There will be those who come out, and those who burn in the flames. I will only take and persuade those who come out,” Bang-won replies authoritatively.

Inside, he thinks to himself, “Father, and also Teacher Sambong, you will see, I shall gain power in my own way.” And it’s on this same breath that he claims to believe that he’s right, which is a belief that wouldn’t be shaken even if he were to die and be reborn. He will find his place in the new nation this way.

Then, jolting those around him, he barks, “What are you all doing? Did I not tell you to set this place ablaze? At once!” But they stand hesitantly by his side, as though unwilling to believe what they’ve just heard.

 
COMMENTS

It really is amazing how this writer can completely change our perspective on revered historical figures, so much so that we’re essentially rooting for one voice to hold an unwieldy amount of power over many. And for no other reason than that Bang-won is the one who gets things done quickly and effectively, as opposed to others like Jung Do-jeon and his father, who would sooner shake their fists at their inability to act than act.

But which side is actually right? Is it Jung Do-jeon, who sees any use of force to achieve their goals as an unnecessary evil, or someone like Bang-won, who’s willing to make much tougher choices? See, even the language I’m using is inherently biased toward Bang-won, because I’m doing like the show is doing in making him out to be the rebel with a cause. He’s the young’un fighting for what’s right, while the elders piddle around with their noses in books, or whatever else old people do in a recently restructured monarchy. (I still love you, Kim Myung-min!)

In the end, I guess that just speaks to the influence of this show, and to the power of the writing and acting involved to make a character like Bang-won—who may very well kill people if this fire gets set—still so much more sympathetic than anyone who’s against killing people, like, say, everyone else. How exactly they manage to accomplish that, I’m not quite sure. Bang-won’s character was portrayed in Tree With Deep Roots as an unbearable tyrant, but here, he’s just Bang-won. And we love him, bloodlust and all.

And strangely enough, it somehow makes him more tragic that he’s doing something so terrible when it will only take him further away from those things that might yet save him, like his father’s love and admiration. That short inner monologue with King Taejo proved that he’s just waiting for Bang-won to do something he can like him for, so he can have an excuse to bring him back into the fold.

Little does he know that the road forked before Bang-won got to that bridge with Jung Mong-joo, and he couldn’t be traveling any further away. Maybe Bang-won’s path is just coming full circle to the days of his hot-headed childhood, back when he killed for what he thought was right. Whatever happened to that wide-eyed youth who dreamed of making people smile? This is all your fault, Jung Do-jeon. (Again, huge fan of your work, Kim Myung-min! Change nothing, you’re already perfect!)

 
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