DFR: Faith (The Great Doctor) ep 3

I'm going to copy my Unnie and shorten Dramatic Friday Review too.  Especially since the title of my drama is so long as it is.  That will eventually be shortened to just "Faith", but for now, while it's still new and people are still finding us, I'll keep the Great Doctor around.  Besides, acronyms and K-anything seem to just go hand in hand.  At least when you're ahjummas like us and to lazy to write all this stuff out day in and day out. ;)  Our fingers are old.  And decrepit, you know, being the 30-somethings we are and all.  o_O

So, this week we welcome back Faith after their big debut last week!  Welcome back Lee Min Ho and others!  We missed you over the long 6 days we had to wait for you.  Granted, I'll take the 6 days over the year we had to wait between City Hunter and Faith.  Nope, you won't catch this ahjumma complaining - I'm just glad he's back.  And boy, is he back!  Was it just me or was this episode extra Lee Min Ho Yeah?!?!  The Husband is always saying that I like him best when he's sick, maybe the same applies here since in this episode, General Choi is sick throughout the whole thing.  Interesting theory.  I'll have to put a pin in that and come back to revisit it once he's all better and see where we fall then on the HoTTness scale.  Without a doubt though, it was a nice episode if you were looking for eye candy.  And when are addicKts not looking for eye candy?  o_O?  (I think raised eyebrow emoticon will be visiting us a lot this post - I'm in a raised eye/eyebrow kind of mood today).

We start out episode 3 with General Choi about to be operated on by The Great Doctor (might as well use her title, right?  Before I axe it later on).  Oh!  That reminds me!  There was some confusion last week on the "Woodalchi" name everyone kept using for General Choi.  I assumed it meant General, or some sort of title. Well, in episode 3, they use it for all of General Choi's men so I'm going to now assume that it's the name of their organization of warriors.  The Woodalchi.  It's a cool name.  I like it.  If I were getting a new pet, I'd probably name it Woodalchi.  It would have to be a fish though as my dog would eat anything else I brought in to this house.  But I digress....

Surgery.  And politics.  That's how we start out.  We get some more time with the bad guys.  They're talking about bad guy stuff.  I took screenshots to start to accumulate names in the attempt at figuring out at least some of the political stuff.

This is Gi Cheol.  Brother of the Empress Gi.  He wants to be in charge.

This is Gi Cheol's advisor - Gu Yang Gak (Yang Sa)

And here we have Gi Cheol's brother, Gi Won.  Why he gets to play second fiddle to his brother and Empress sister, I don't know.  He's apparently okay with it.  *shrug*

Now, you may have noticed this in Jin, (because I know you all totally read all of my Jin reviews o_O), but I don't care for the political stuff.  I tune a lot of it out.  I'll watch and get the basics, but please don't ever come to me to help figure out the finer details.  I just don't care.  I don't like it and I like to talk about it minimally at the most.  I'll try and get the big points down for you, but the minute details are lost on me.  Want a run down of the political wheelings and dealings?  Sorry.  You won't find it here.  Lame, huh?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Maybe there are some of you who like me don't care for it.  You're here for the general story, the magic, the eye candy, the action and the romance, not the nitty gritty political posturing.  I've been watching a lot of sageuks or sageuk fusions lately and by now I am so overdosed on political mambo jambo that I just can't take much more.  Make it stop!  Arghhhhhh.....  With that disclaimer in place, there's some political action and plotting.  Bad Guy Gi Cheol is plotting to take over as the new king. Bad Guy is there with the Killer Flutist (Cheon Eum Ja).

Cheon Eum Ja - on Gi Cheol's team and plays a killer flute.

There's another guy and it's not that guy's day.  Bad Guy decides that he has heard too much.  Enter Killer Flute.  Killer Flute then does what Killer Flute does best - kills the guy in a not nice, ear piercing way.  Little different super power than we may be used to, but it's a killer flute...I don't care who you are, that's just cool.

Like I mentioned, General Choi is about to be operated on, once the doctor from the heavens can convince the doctor from the Goryeo that cutting open his stomach to repair his cut stomach makes sense and is the only way to go.  There's an argument, she wins (hard to beat the "he's going to die anyway if we don't do anything" line), the incision made, and the wound repaired.  And there was blood.  A whole lot of blood.  Spurting blood even.  With spurting blood sound effects.  Oh golly.  I am not ready for another gory medical show...what have I gotten myself into?

{Lee Min Ho, Lee Min Ho, Lee Min Ho...*rocking and chanting my mantra to help me through the icky bloody stuff*}

The surgery is complete and eventually he wakes up.

And then gets up.  And then announces that they all must flee right away.

What?  You were just run through with a sword, had said sword ripped unceremoniously from your body, carried over rough terrain, operated on in a dingy inn without any sort of antibiotics available, your fine chiseled abdomen was sliced open, and your liver sewn back up.  And now you have just regained consciousness and you're ready to run away.  Obviously the doctor had a few objections to this and starts arguing with him, trying to impress upon him the seriousness of what he just went through and the need to rest.  She also informs him that he can't even eat until he farts.

Oh, fart lines...you just never get old, do you?  Remember the farting king from Dr Jin?

Ah, that's just drama gold material there I tell you.  Lee Min Ho doesn't fart.  Regular men fart.  Lee Min Ho does not.  Perish the thought and bite your tongue crazy doctor.  Huh.  Tangent...  That term "bite your tongue" takes on new meaning now that I've seen such shows as Bridal Mask where, during interrogation, a lady bites her tongue to kill herself in order to avoid giving them the information they were trying to get from her through torture.  Ew.  I kind of wish I didn't know the real meaning behind that phrase.  I will forever be haunted by that image now any time I hear it.  Kdramas - look at what you've done to me.  *sigh*  That's okay.  I still love you and we will live forever happily ever after.  Okay, tangent over.  {Sorry.  I will get through this recap, I promise. There's not a terrible amount left to cover.  These episodes seem to be a little light on the plot advancement.  We're still in the "getting acquainted" phase.}  Anyway, so Young Choi is adamant that they all escape NOW, recent surgery aside.  If they stay, they are all in danger.  They will die, "they" are coming for them.

So, off they go.  Eun Soo (dang, for a second there I had remembered her name as Soo Yoo instead of Yoo Eun Soo - I wish it was Soo Yoo - that would be awesome!  A doctor named "Soo Yoo"?  Come on!  That's just awesome right there!) is riding in the carriage with the queen and starting to piece things together.

Around this point she starts to understand that she is back in the Goryeo era.

This doesn't sit well with her.

Meanwhile, this lady...

Meet Hwa Soo In, Team Gi Cheol and skilled in the art of fire

...hears of their escape.  She must be scary because Scarface bows to her and is visibly terrified of her.

And apparently for good reason.  She doesn't like what he reports about the king and queen escaping and the queen not actually being as dead as she was supposed to be, and she gives him a nice warm embrace.  Or rather, she kills him using her fire power.

Oh Scarface, I never did learn your name.  Guess that's all for the best since you've been BBQ'd and will no longer be with us.

The king makes his triumphal return to his kingdom.  Upon his arrival he is greeted...by nobody.  The streets are empty, no one is to be found shy of a few security guards posted here and there.  And the queen had just gotten a makeover from the doctor on the ride over and everything.  What a waste.  Don't you hate getting all dolled up for nothing?  Sucks.

You can practically imagine the tumbleweeds blowing by though in the deserted street.  Where are all of the loyal subjects?

They're at a party, being thrown by Bad Guy, Gi Cheol.  Or dead like the 24 governmental officers loyal to the king that were murdered by poison gas bombs.

There are still a few friends to be found, like Court Lady Choi who used to attend to the king when he was a boy, before he was brought to Yuan.

He's happy to see her.

She jumps right in to her duty of caring for the new queen.  She's going on and on, talking to her in the language of Goryeo, assuming then, when the queen doesn't respond, that she doesn't speak the language since she is from Yuan.  So she says some things she maybe shouldn't say.  Until the queen finally speaks up and Court Lady Choi realizes her error.  Whoops!

We get a little back story as to why the king and queen do not get along.  So, not sure if we learned this in this episode or the next, so forgive me if I'm jumping ahead, but it's not a big deal either way, the king was removed from Goryeo as a child and raised in Yuan against his will.  He resented this.  He resented Yuan's control of Goryeo.  While there in Yuan, a marriage is arranged for him with a Yuan princess.  He is fit to be tied!  He resents being torn from his home and raised in a foreign country that has too much power in his own country.  And now he must marry a woman from Yuan?  He's angry.  And he comes across a maiden who he assumes is from Goryeo because she can speak the language.

He grabs her and runs away and hides, telling her his story, and finally asking her if she will be his first wife since she is a woman of Goryeo and that would show those good-for-nothing interfering Yuanians.  Only, he obviously isn't aware that she is not from Goryeo, but is indeed the very Yuan princess he is to marry.  We don't get that reveal quite yet - where he finds out her true identity - but it's pretty apparent that he wasn't happy when the truth was made clear and he realized he had made an error in his assumptions.  And now he resents her.  A lot.

How about the scene where, after hitting and injuring her knee, Eun Soo is pulling up her pant leg and Young Choi happens to see?

Did you see his reaction?!

Ooh!  So scandalous and tantilizing!  *giggle*  I loved the look on his face.  He needed a cold shower after seeing her shin.

I think he likes what he sees and hears...

Too bad he's hurting.  He really should listen better to his doctor.

Jumping back to the politics for a moment.  So, the king has arrived to an empty house while everyone is over at Gi Cheol's having a birthday party.

Jo Il Shin is angry and wants to attack, while Young Choi responds with reason.

"Our supporters are all dead.  Those at the party are supporters of Gi Cheol.  Starting a war with them will lead no where except death for us."  The king appreciates Young Choi's reason and sides with him in the dispute, going as far as telling Young Choi that he will be the king's one and only trusted adviser.  Don't get your panties all in a twist quite yet there Jo Il Shin - General Choi doesn't want the job.  He presents the king with a letter from the previous king releasing him from his duties once the new king is safely delivered to Goryeo.  The king doesn't react well to this resignation and refuses to allow it, telling General Choi that his job is not yet complete.

Gi Cheol's party is crashed.  Young Choi presents him with supposed evidence from the killing of the 24 governmental officers.  It's a list of the names, covered in blood.  I forgot the rest.  Eh.  It'll come up again later if it's important ;)

What I didn't forget though was this closing scene.  Eun Soo, after ruining her pants, cuts them off into shorts and then goes wandering around.

She comes to the barracks of the Woodalchi.  All the men's jaws drop.  A woman exposing her legs?!  Oh my!  She's utterly unaware of the scene she is causing.  She orders Young Choi to remove his shirt so that she can check his wound.  She gets angry when he doesn't listen and once again demands him to take off his shirt.

Ordering Lee Min Ho to take off his shirt?  Actress Kim Hee Sun officially has the coolest job on the planet!

They have a little argument.  She's upset and angry, still trying to come to terms with where she has been kidnapped to.

She's upset that he won't let her treat him.  She is starting to understand that this isn't a dream which means that she, a doctor, really did stab someone and now she wants to treat him because she feels bad and worried for his health.  He grabs her during her meltdown, pins her against a column, and asks of her why she didn't follow his orders there at heaven's gate to leave him once he had been stabbed.

How about this line where he tells her that he will properly shut her lips.

Wha?  Does he mean this in a sexy "I'm going to shut your lips (with mine)" sort of way, or in a threatening "I'm going to shut your lips (with force)" sort of way?  I just don't know.  I'm going to hope for the first, 'cause it's Lee Min Ho and that would be pretty sexy and the preferable interpretation of the line.  She ends with a confession of her own...she is worried that if he dies, she will be all alone in this strange place.

In other words, he's really the only one she feels safe and connected with.  He's her lifeline in this scary experience she finds herself in.  Do they know yet that they are both starting to feel strong emotions for each other?  I don't know.  I think they are though.  Sometimes it may be more akin to fear or hate, but there's also a building feeling of trust and admiration.  Just this ahjumma's take.

Now, I will close this here so that we can move along to 4, how about that?  See you there!