Six Flying Dragons: Episode 25

by HeadsNo2

There’s nothing like a little (or in this case, a whooole lot) of blood, guts, and glory to liven up the holiday season. This is the kind of epic scope we watch sageuk for, and it should come as no surprise that even on the sheer unbridled violence front, Six Flying Dragons delivers. But it never skimps on delivering character revelations first and foremost, which isn’t something I would’ve thought to give it credit for during such a battle-heavy episode. But there it is. And up there is Moo-hyul, who I’m officially declaring my new spirit animal.

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EPISODE 25 RECAP

Moo-hyul unknowingly prevents Bang-ji from pursuing Yeon-hee’s rapist (though neither know it’s him) by telling him not to gape so much at his expensive surroundings—he’ll look unsophisticated that way. At least, that’s what his own grandmother told him.

Over the banquet dinner, Bang-ji reveals that he’s been here before, though Moo-hyul thinks he’s kidding. Bang-ji doesn’t correct him, and later excuses himself to the outhouse. But it’s there that he brushes shoulders with Yeon-hee’s rapist, who doesn’t recognize him. Yet.

Boon-yi gives her people a pep talk over their meager feast, since most are disappointed that the land reform plan hasn’t yet gone through. She tells them that they don’t have the luxury of disappointment when they’re fighting against noblemen who don’t want to give up their land.

If even General Jo assembled an army in order to keep his land, they have to be ready to get that response from any noble, she reminds them. They have to fight to get what’s theirs, and whoever gets disappointed first loses.

Lee Saek tears into Jung Mong-joo about going along with the land reform plan because it’s Jung Do-jeon’s plan first and foremost, and he really does seem to hate him. If it were Jung Mong-joo’s plan, Lee Saek claims, he’d have no problem supporting it—but Jung Do-jeon has always been rebellious in nature, and he doesn’t like that he can’t be easily controlled.

In the end, Jung Mong-joo cautions his teacher to go along with the reformation or stand against an entire nation, which implicitly means he’s siding with Jung Do-jeon. He doesn’t like that the sides are so split though, and brings that issue up with Ha Ryun when they run into each other.

Ha Ryun thinks it very strange that Jung Mong-joo wants harmony so badly, since people will always have different goals and thus always be in a state of disharmony. He almost seems concerned for what he sees as willful ignorance on Jung Mong-joo’s part to believe that politics is this lofty, idealistic concept—because if it was, what use would there be for laws?

Still, Jung Mong-joo believes that Jung Do-jeon is working off the teachings of Confucius, and that he’s trying to reform Goryeo by establishing a basis of trust and harmony. Ha Ryun shakes his head, now openly wondering if Jung Mong-joo just can’t see the deeper machinations going on.

So when he suggests that Jung Do-jeon is likely planning to put Lee Seong-gye on the throne (which he is), Jung Mong-joo is absolutely scandalized by the outrageous idea. “Should we make a bet?” Ha Ryun asks confidently.

“Should we make a bet?” is also what Jo Joon asks Jung Do-jeon in the New Joseon Cave. He’s betting that they’ll never be able to create the nation they want by putting the land reformation on hold and negotiating with the likes of General Jo.

Jung Do-jeon asks if he’d prefer to spill blood instead, causing Jo Joon to snap, “Revolutions call for blood!” “If we can avoid it, we should,” Jung replies just as adamantly. He reminds Jo Joon that he’s first and foremost a Confucian scholar, and he’ll always try to resolve matters consistent with that ideology before resorting to violence.

Meanwhile, Lee Seong-gye and his party feast with General Jo, completely oblivious to the fact that the general has a roomful of murderers just waiting for his cue. He fully intends on killing Lee Seong-gye and everyone with him tonight.

Bang-ji returns to his seat with the boys, hardly able to contain his shaking rage (fear?) at recognizing Yeon-hee’s rapist. That man recognizes him not from their shared past, but because he’s the best swordsman in the Three Kingdoms. And they’re planning on killing him.

Luckily for our team, General Jo doesn’t give Moo-hyul a second thought despite his size, thinking he’s just another army grunt. He wants everyone to focus their attention on killing Bang-ji, as well as Lee Bang-woo, since he’s also quite skilled with a sword.

Having overheard the last of Boon-yi’s speech to her men, Bang-won realizes that the hold on the land reformation really must feel like a huge loss to her. He tries reassuring her in his ability to make it happen, and even tears off the strap, or goreum, which ties the outer layer (jeogori) of his hanbok together and gives it to her.

It’s a symbol of his promise to her, he tells her, and she can use it to present to him later should he not keep his word. She agrees that if she ever has to find him, she’ll also have to tell him to spit his bug/heartworm out. But Bang-won corrects her, saying it’s the bug she’ll have to order to spit him out.

Switching subjects back to the land reform, Boon-yi tells him how Bang-ji and Yeon-hee used to like each other, and how they likely would’ve continued doing so had their hometown’s land been taken by the dodang’s greed.

It all ties back to land, she says, adding that their lives (and hers) wouldn’t be so difficult had they been able to stay in their hometown. But what she’s truly disappointed about is less about the land reform and more about how thinking it would pass caused Yeon-hee to want to return to their hometown, and how happy that had made her brother.

“I think that my brother and unni [Yeon-hee] have to live happily together in order for me to be happy,” she says finally. Bang-won disagrees with that sentiment, claiming that no one should carry the weight of another person’s happiness on their shoulders. “But I want to do it,” Boon-yi replies after some thought. “That’s the kind of person I am.”

Jung Do-jeon goes to meet Ha Ryun, who somewhat unsuccessfully tries milking information out of Jung Do-jeon by speaking from one schemer to another. Isn’t it fun to hold powerful people in the palms of their hands? Like, maybe, how Jung Do-jeon has Lee Seong-gye in his grasp?

But Jung Do-jeon just laughs at what he sees as Ha Ryun’s inadequacy as a schemer, since he very incorrectly believes he can apply the same tactics of predicting trends to the human mind. Only it doesn’t work with people, and he can’t stress enough how much more difficult it is to read a a single person than the mood of an entire country.

He admits that his inability to read Lee Seong-gye’s mind put him into some hot water before, just like how he couldn’t always read Minister Hong’s mind. Nor could he predict how one young man’s actions could put an entire movement in peril (he’s talking about Bang-won, of course.)

Ha Ryun shrugs that there will always be rebels to cause trouble like that, only for Jung Do-jeon to reply that everyone is a rebel. The only difference is how they choose to use the rebellious nature that’s within all of them. “A schemer must be humble when it comes to people,” Jung adds.

Still, Ha Ryun defends that he does have General Jo in the palm of his hand, as evidenced by him taking his advice to pretend to rally his troops in order to bring Lee Seong-gye to the negotiating table. And he even took it a step further by organizing a banquet to reconcile with Lee Seong-gye, Ha Ryun brags.

The fact that the banquet wasn’t part of Ha Ryun’s plan causes Jung Do-jeon’s expression to turn from one of wary amusement into concern, especially as he thinks of the strange circumstances surrounding their invitation to the banquet. Not to mention the out-of-place soldiers that have come for a drink.

On the pretense that he’s going to bring them a special cinnamon wine, General Jo excuses himself to a back room where one of his minions pours poison into the wine to be served.

Erstwhile, the conversation at Bang-ji’s table seems to just wash over him as he grits his teeth in a concerted effort to not launch himself at Yeon-hee’s rapist, since he’s trying to respect Officer Nam’s wish for them to behave themselves accordingly.

Moo-hyul notices Bang-ji’s expression from across the table, and slowly follows his gaze to the man he’s been staring at. Remembering Yeon-hee’s description of the man in the straw hat and her reaction to seeing him, Moo-hyul puts two and two together and realizes that the man Bang-ji’s honing in on must be the one who hurt her.

Either Ha Ryun really is oblivious to General Jo’s true intentions, or he’s doing a very good job of making it seem as though he is in order for Jung Do-jeon to trust him. But when he takes credit for Jo claiming that he’d willingly give up one gyeol (about 2,450 acres) of land, Jung realizes something: If he’s willing to give up his land, why would he have mobilized his soldiers?

Ha Ryun thinks it’s because he told him to intimidate Lee Seong-gye into negotiating, which is when Jung Do-jeon asks him if it was his idea or General Jo’s idea for the two of them to meet tonight. If it was General Jo, which it was, it means he wanted Jung Do-jeon distracted from the banquet.

“If you came here to meet me because Jo Min-soo asked you to, then he used you,” Jung Do-jeon finally says. This seems to come as a surprise to Ha Ryun, and he only fully believes it when Jung brings his attention to one of the suspicious men near their table.

He asks Ha Ryun to relay exactly what General Jo told him, which was for him to meet him while the banquet was being held. Jung Do-jeon thinks it was just a ploy to isolate him, and all the men who’ve come to the inn are actually there to kill him.

Ha Ryun realizes all this very slowly, but at least he proves willing to help Jung Do-jeon make an escape by playing like he’s just going to the outhouse. So there is goodness in him.

While Moo-hyul begs Young-kyu to make up some excuse to take Bang-ji away from the banquet in order to prevent exactly what Officer Nam didn’t want them to do (fight), Jung Do-jeon makes it to Bang-won’s house to tell him about General Jo’s ulterior motives. They’ll need to take his father’s soldiers to Dohwa Manor posthaste if they want to save him.

The moment Young-kyu tries to get Bang-ji up and away from the table, Yeon-hee’s rapist descends upon them like a pushy partygoer to insist they stay by pouring them glasses of the cinnamon wine.

For whatever reason, the horrible excuse for a human being thinks the men at the table would enjoy the story of how he violently raped a girl from the west, which we (and Moo-hyul and Bang-ji) know is Yeon-hee. Surprisingly though, it’s Moo-hyul who loses his cool first by flipping over the table and the evil son of a bitch.

It’s when Moo-hyul notices that the man is wearing armor, and Bang-ji notices the swords hidden under the flipped table, that they realize it’s a trap. All General Jo’s planted men suddenly jump into action, and luckily, all the ruckus stops Lee Seong-gye and his party from drinking the deadly wine.

Having prepared to face the best swordsman, General Jo’s men tie their swords to their hands so that Bang-ji can’t easily steal a weapon from them. Hah, good luck with that.

The ax-wielding assassins take their cue to storm into the banquet room, with only Lee Ji-ran and Bang-woo to hold the throng back. Both Ji-ran and Bang-woo take multiple wounds from multiple axes, though Ji-ran’s look especially fatal. Oh no.

Lee Seong-gye sees his longtime brother-in-arms crash back into the room under the weight of so many assassins pushing in, and his convulsing on the floor doesn’t bode well for him. But while one assassin has his ax to Lee Seong-gye’s throat, Bang-woo has one to General Jo’s.

Outside, Bang-ji, Young-kyu, and Moo-hyul use only their raw strength and cunning to fight off their sword-wielding attackers. A whistle sounds, and all the mercenaries clear the courtyard, leaving three very confused boys behind.

…Until they look up and see all the archers who’ve lined up to take a shot at them. They try to escape the hail of arrows with differing levels of success—Young-kyu takes two, while Bang-ji takes one to the chest. He pulls it out in order to keep fighting as Moo-hyul bulldozes his way to break the line by using a table as a shield.

“Don’t be afraid! He’s just big, but he’s nothing!” Yeon-hee’s rapist tells his men when Moo-hyul barges into them. Ohhhh, you just wait.

Down in the courtyard, Bang-ji sustains a significant wound to the abdomen and two to his collarbone, as he just barely prevents them from slicing through his torso. Cho-young and Yeon-hee find out about the frackas at the same time as Boon-yi.

Separately, the old woman who works for the master of the Red Seal delivers “his” will to Jukryong and Gil Sun-mi, just as Bang-won goes ahead of the men carrying only his bow and a quiver of arrows.

Bleeding and unsteady, Bang-ji fashions two torches from the fire pits in the courtyard to use as makeshift weapons. He downs one of the men who attacks him, setting fire to his arm and thus the tie to his sword. Grasping the sword by the blade, Bang-ji pulls it out of the man’s grasp and into his. Now the best swordsman has a sword! Tell them what time it is, Bang-ji!

Young-kyu uses one of the arrows that pierced him as a small dagger while taking more and more wounds, but it’s a sword straight through the abdomen that looks like it really hurts. Bang-ji is able to cut another sword free and toss it to Moo-hyul, who wasn’t doing too bad without.

After ordering Moo-hyul to rescue Lee Seong-gye, Bang-ji and Young-kyu face off against a small army. It’s actually really touching when Bang-ji offers a sword to Young-kyu, and they both place one hand on the hilt. “Let’s live through this and go home,” Bang-ji says. They smile through bloody teeth.

The standoff inside is interrupted when Bang-won uses the secret entrance to shoot down the assassin closest to his father, which tips the scales in Lee Seong-gye’s favor. He uses his son’s quiver of arrows to load three at once, aiming toward the men as Bang-won escapes with Ji-ran.

Moo-hyul mows down a good number of men on his way to Lee Seong-gye, only to come face to face with a courtyard full of them. He’s hopelessly outnumbered, but roars, “Warrior Moo-hyul!” before he starts mowing them down with a sword in each hand.

He’s less a human and more an unstoppable force of nature as he cuts men down like wheat, enough to cause the pond in the courtyard to turn red with blood. I’m running out of ways to describe how awesome this fight is, but it is that good.

While Bang-ji and Young-kyu hold the line, an unseen assassin tears through the paper wall and plants an ax in Bang-woo’s chest. Moo-hyul makes it through the sea of soldiers to crash into the same banquet room, completely drenched in blood.

His entrance provides Lee Seong-gye and his sons a chance to back away slowly, all while General Jo and his men follow, hoping to find an opening to attack. Lee Seong-gye downs three men at a time with his three arrows, but for the most part, the path has been cleared by Moo-hyul.

Likewise, Bang-ji and Young-kyu are the only ones left standing (well, sitting) in the courtyard among a sea of bodies. It looks like the coast is clear for everyone to make a clean escape, until an arrow flies right into Lee Seong-gye.

Archers appear on the roof as General Jo and his men emerge to tell them to drop their weapons. Bang-woo knows he’ll kill them anyway and urges his comrades not to comply, which Moo-hyul agrees to gladly. “Yes, let’s charge together,” Moo-hyul adds firmly. “Those who will die shall die, but what can we do? I will slit that son of a bitch Jo Min-soo’s throat myself.”

Before they can, Bang-won quietly urges them to wait. Wait for what? General Jo gives the archers till the count of three to fire, but right as they’re about to, their throats are cut from behind by Bang-gwa and his father’s soldiers.

Now that they’re surrounded, Bang-gwa orders General Jo and his men to drop their weapons. General Jo has no choice but to do so. The day is saved!

Back at Biguk Temple, the Red Seal Grandma tells Jukryong and Gil Sun-mi that their master has made his choice. He’s going to abandon both General Jo and Lee Seong-gye and see what happens, having sent someone to the manor already.

Bang-ji searches through the dead to find Yeon-hee’s rapist, but spots him alive and fleeing over the wall. He gives chase as best he can, limping as he is, which conjures up terrible memories of how he couldn’t run fast enough to save Yeon-hee all those years ago.

Boon-yi catches up with her bloodied brother as Yeon-hee accidentally cuts her rapist off at the end of the deserted street. She freezes in place, remembering every traumatic memory from that fateful day.

The three of them are in the same place again, with Bang-ji lagging behind as the man runs toward her. He fully intends to run past her, but Yeon-hee grabs him and stabs one of her jade pins straight into his throat.

“Remember me?” she asks through clenched teeth. “From the buckwheat field. Look at me! Do you remember? Turbulent times are hell for the weak. Go to hell.” Even with the pin in his neck, he grabs Yeon-hee’s throat, intent on squeezing the life out of her.

That’s when Bang-ji makes his move, cutting him down from behind. He almost strikes again, but is reminded of how he let the rapist’s cohort live. Besides, the guy’s not getting up.

Sinking to his knees beside Yeon-hee, he asks, “Are you all right? It’s over.” But her face says anything but, as she stares into nothing and shakes. Bang-ji reaches out to touch her cheek, bringing her back to the present in a rush of tears.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers before pulling her into his arms. Yeon-hee allows herself to relax into the embrace, breathing out a long-held sigh.

 
COMMENTS

Oh yeah, and Boon-yi’s been standing there the whole time. Forgot to mention that.

Man oh man though, did things take a turn. I was all revved up on all the adrenaline and oceans of testosterone from the battle sequence that I didn’t think they’d turn the tide toward finding justice for Yeon-hee at the end of it all, but I couldn’t be happier that the focus shifted the way it did. Maybe this isn’t the end, maybe it isn’t justice so much as revenge, but it certainly must help for both Yeon-hee and Bang-ji to get to almost relive the trauma from their past and defeat it.

Though Bang-ji wanted to kill the man for what he did to Yeon-hee first and foremost, with all the flashbacks there seemed to be a certain part of him that needed to overcome the fear that paralyzed him from taking action all those years ago. In a way, that man represented everything Bang-ji sought to fix within himself, albeit with varying levels of success—had it not been for Moo-hyul’s gallant outburst, it seemed very likely that Bang-ji would’ve just stayed rooted to that spot and his own memories of being a terrified boy.

Had it just been Bang-ji to attack the man and kill him, it wouldn’t have been nearly as satisfying as having Yeon-hee be the first to strike. Because try as the show might’ve to make it more about him than Yeon-hee, in the end, it had to be her. To have to confront her own rapist was already an unimaginable horror, but instead of being helpless and rooted in place like she has been every time she’s seen him since, Yeon-hee was able to act. She was able to defend herself in a way she couldn’t when she was a girl, and though I’m sure it won’t ever be over the way Bang-ji would like it to be, hopefully, Yeon-hee might be able to find some measure of peace.

Jung Do-jeon’s scene with Ha Ryun was both enlightening and fun, though I would’ve expected him to play a bigger role in the Battle of Dohwa Manor after finding out it was all an elaborate ruse. I can already tell I’m going to love his interactions with Ha Ryun in the future though, even if it’s unlikely that their views will always (or ever again) align. And I’m still not sure I buy Ha Ryun’s cluelessness, since it seems convenient that he assumes so much yet knows so little. He really could be an arrogant wannabe schemer, but there’s still the matter of the Red Seal, and so far he seems the most likely candidate. Then again, I always suck at guessing reveals ahead of time, which is why I normally try not to. But I can’t help it here, they’re really building up the mystery around the Red Seal perfectly. I want to know, damn it!

Last but certainly not ever least, the battle. I absolutely loved how they handled such a prolonged encounter by honing in on everyone’s individual stories throughout, since it would have been a shame to lose our dragons’ unique personalities in the throes of carnage. I loved the brotherly bonding that took place, the familial bonding too, and all of it tied together with the knowledge that they may all be destined to die, but none of them were going out without the fight of their lives. And/or without looking like Carrie at the prom.

 
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