The Forbidden Marriage: Episodes 5-6

The Forbidden Marriage: Episodes 5-6

by Unit

Things get heated this week, as feelings deepen on all sides of our love triangle. But are our Joseon baddies even worth their salt if they don’t take advantage of said feelings in their plans to ruin the king?

 
EPISODES 5-6 WEECAP

“Off with his head!” is what I’d have ordered if I were a king and some lowly inspector — or anyone at all — rudely whisked my woman away right in front of my face. The nerve! Maybe that’s why Heon chooses to settle last week’s score with Shin-won through a duel, and So-rang has to stop him before he actually goes off with Shin-won’s head. I find Shin-won’s resolute insistence to not send So-rang to the king part admirable, albeit dangerous, and part annoying because without telling Heon why he’s not onboard the HeonRang ship, he’s just making the king out to be a fool. And that’s not very best-friendly of him.

But the drama was unnecessary, because Heon assumed it was business as usual with So-rang, and he had zero idea about his attendants’ grand plans to have him spend the night with her. Would he have actually slept with So-rang, though? Maybe, if he had imagined her to be the crown princess. But for now, Heon remains miffed that she seemingly took Shin-won’s side during the duel, and that’s So-rang’s biggest concern in all of this: Why is the king jealous? Where does his true affections lie? With his late wife? Or with her?

Heon eventually buries the hatchet by requesting that Shin-won stay by So-rang’s side to protect her after hearing about the assassination attempt on So-rang’s life. Although he all but orders Shin-won not to harbor feelings for her. So-rang also shares the same sentiments as she tells Shin-won not to cross the line with her. But then Shin-won goes on to tell her not to fall in love with the king, and I wonder if this trio even realizes that despite all the orders and requests back and forth, the heart will always want what it wants.

This is why even though So-rang is frustrated enough to want to tell Heon the truth about not being possessed by the crown princess, she sucks it in. She even capitalizes on the “possession” to tell the king to forget about her (as the crown princess), not minding that Heon is in agony at the very thought of forgetting about his late wife as her death anniversary approaches.

But the crown princess refuses to be forgotten so easily, and her ghost appears in sight of everyone — from the citizens, to her father, and even to Heon himself. This is all part of Minister Jo’s carefully crafted plans, of course, and the ghost in question is actually a doppelgänger of the late crown princess who was snatched away by Minister Jo’s kidnapping ring, and prepped for the job by Lady Seo.

It’s a win-win situation for them because if the plan pushes through, Minister Jo gets to permanently destroy the king (for reasons beyond me), and Lady Seo gets to bring in her daughter as queen under the guise of driving away the evil spirit with a new queen. But before Heon can finally drive himself crazy due to the sightings of the crown princess, So-rang and Shin-won come up with evidence to prove that the lady everyone saw is an imposter.

The Fantastic Four (consisting of So-rang, Shin-won, the king’s eunuch and Court Lady Won), call for a search of all the court ladies in the palace in a bid to find the imposter. But they walk right into Minister Jo’s trap because the only imposter among the court ladies is So-rang who is using the Sun-ah identity! It’s a semi-smart plan, I’ll give Minister Jo that, but then Heon personally fishes out the imposter from where she hid among the soldiers, and throws a wrench in Minister Jo’s plans. For now.

Heon goes to stop So-rang’s interrogation, and when he’s told that So-rang isn’t her real name either, he’s all, “So?” Okay, that was delicious! It’s almost as swoon-worthy as when he took off his kingly robe to cover So-rang, and his “thank you for staying alive” hug. Knowing that the crown princess is his Achilles heel, Heon decides to forget about her, and he bans So-rang from taking in her spirit — requesting her to officially stay by his side as his court maid, rather than as a medium for the crown princess. Awww.

But it’s not over yet because Minister Jo salvages his plans by murdering and hanging the imposter, and So-rang is horrified to learn that a total of seven ladies have died under similar circumstances — one every year, from the crown princess to the imposter. The only difference is that this time, the hanging took place in So-rang’s quarters rather than the crown princess’s quarters, and this is a clear warning that So-rang is next.

Actually, without Heon’s intervention, So-rang should have been the one to die. But regardless of how scary that knowledge is, So-rang chooses to remain by the king’s side. Shin-won’s wrist grab can’t even get her to change her mind, and while I understand his pain, at this point he needs to take a step back and just breathe. Or maybe not, because Minister Jo is not quite done with them.

The next victim of the kidnapping ring ends up being Hwa-young, but this is in a bid to grab the real target: So-rang. It ends up being a good thing that Shin-won bought So-rang shoes last week because that’s how he spots that she has been captured too, and he goes after the kidnappers. He’s joined by Heon who leads the palace troops like the head of some elite CIA extraction mission, and is anyone still in doubt that the woman Heon loves is So-rang and no longer the crown princess? Lol.

We’re already midway into the drama, and I like that there’s still the general fun feel to the story despite things heating up. I refuse to believe that Minister Jo established the kidnapping ring just for this scheme against the king. But then it’s thanks to the marriage ban that the citizens seem to assume that the recent kidnappings are arranged by the victims so they can secretly get married, Bossam-style. But we know that’s not true, so where are the ladies being trafficked to?

Anyway, now that the king is aware about the existence of the kidnapping ring, he can put a stop to it and return the victims home. Although, the best way to end the madness is to call off the marriage ban itself — and that can only happen when he decides to get married. Really, there’s no dearth of ladies to choose from as we’ve got dozens of queen hopefuls at Lady Seo’s Training Academy for Queens. And this is actually funny because whether in fictional Joseon or modern day Seoul, mothers are crazy about enrolling their children in premium academies.

But it doesn’t matter, because the endgame for the position of queen has already been determined. And no, it’s not Hyun-hee like Lady Seo or the dowager think: it’s So-rang. And with the earlier hint to Heon that So-rang has a whole different identity, it’s only a matter of time before she is outed as noble lady Hyeon-seon, and the queenly robes are tailored for her. My sympathies in advance to Shin-won who thinks he’ll return to the royal tailor with So-rang as his bride. And to the rest of the lovely beanies, it’s Merry Christmas from me to you!

 
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The Forbidden Marriage: Episodes 5-6
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily