DFR: Faith ep 11

Good Friday to you all.  Sorry this is a tad tardy fellow Faithfuls, but it's been kind of a rough week for this ahjumma.  I'd tell you about it but that would include me using a lot of expletives to describe what I'm feeling just about now and this is an expletive-free site.  ;)  I'm just glad to be here because I was starting to worry I wouldn't get this out at all, and we couldn't have that, now could we?

Okay, so there was a lot, and I do mean A LOT of stuff that happened in this episode.  Because of the time and my current "issues", I'm going to handle this week a little differently.  I think I'll skip the full recap.  GASP!  But Dongsaeng!  I know, I know, and I'm sorry.  There is just so much to cover and it would be so incredibly long.  You should see the full entire page of notes I took.  And the over 200+ screenshots.  Instead of a full recap, I'm going to talk about the points/things that made an impression on me.

In this episode we get some more crazy Gi Cheol moments.  He admits to an "unfixable shortcoming" - jealousy.  I was going to say that his unfixable shortcoming is that he's a crazy creepy scary psychopath, but, whatever, we'll go with jealousy.  He will eliminate anyone who stands in the way of what he wants.  And what does he want?  Well, he wants Eun Soo for her future telling capabilities.  He wants the king to be a mere puppet while he, Gi Cheol, pulls the strings.  He wants power.  He wants a razor to shave that nasty soul patch off his chin.

Let's toss aside for a moment Gi Cheol and the politics and focus on some relationships.  Ooh la la.  There's some interesting relationship developments happening this week.  More in 12 than in 11, but still enough here to chat about for a moment.  Eun Soo has been given a choice as to who should be killed next - the Queen, Dr Jang, or Choi Young.  Fire Lady has been told to kill the one she cares about most.  Well, duh.  We all know who that is, don't we?  She tries to avoid the question by saying "I don't care who you kill.  I'm outta here" and then walking away.

That lasts for about two seconds until Killer Flute starts playing and the Woodalchi are writhing on the ground.

Ooh!  Look at those silver locks blowing in the breeze of the killer flute.

She rushes back to get him to stop, Choi Young shows up on scene,

Well, hell-o handsome!

and immediately runs to who else but Eun Soo to make sure she's okay.

Fire Lady sees this and realizes the obvious - that he is the one that is always there watching over her.  So, what does Eun Soo do?  Remember, she may be slow sometimes, but she really is no dummy - she knows that his attention to her is like a death sentence, so she brushes his hand away as he reaches for her and then walks off coolly.

She later decides that she is done with this whole Goryeo business, tells Choi Young he's off the hook as far as the vow to return her safely goes, and after some intense moments, he lets her leave.

And the reason he lets her leave?  Because Mr Annoying Iwannaslaphisface Jo Il Shin has been trying to convince the king that he needs to use the High Doctor to help get people on his side.  This angers Choi Young who has an argument with the king, boldly telling him that if he uses the High Doctor to scare the people into submission he isn't any different than Gi Cheol.  He then promises to gather subjects without using her.  Thankfully the king goes along with this plan.  I love how these two guys are when they're working together.

Before leaving, Gi Cheol and Choi Young have an X-Men-style face off - frosty vs lightning.  Frosty wins, which is important to mention because now Choi Young knows that Gi Cheol is more powerful than him and he, CY, can't win against him.

Another relationship developing along the right path is the king and the queen.  After the queen was threatened and Eun Soo saved, Choi Young returns to the king to tell him that both women are safe but that the 5 people on the roster of possible Friends of King are dead.  The king jumps up and rushes to the queen's chambers, dramatically knocks her teacup out of her hand (you know, in case it was poisoned), grabs her wrist and pulls her out, declaring that for the time being she will stay with him in his quarters.  You know, for safety and all that.  He explains to the queen that Gi Cheol threatened him with her life and while he doesn't say the rest, it's plainly evident that he's not okay with this.

They have a tender "aw, you really do care" moment, which Lady Choi catches, causing her to then pull back the rest of the entourage to give the newlyweds a little bit of space.  That Lady Choi, nothing gets by her!  I love her.

Lady Choi doesn't just try to help the king and queen out in their relationship.  Oh no.  Remember, nothing gets by her.  So, it's at the end.  Eun Soo has run off in search of the gate back home.  Choi Young is acting strangely.  He's more or less tying up loose ends and saying goodbye.

He's on a mission.  While he doesn't quite come out and say it, you know that he's off to kill Gi Cheol before Gi Cheol can kill those coming to the king's sermon.  Lady Choi catches wind and rides off to find the one person that she thinks can talk some sense into Choi Young - Eun Soo.  Lady Choi reaches her, tells her what's going on, tells her the story of Choi Young's dead fiance, basically saying, "Since you told him that you don't need him anymore, I think he's got nothing else to live for and he's going to go fight Gi Cheol, knowing that he will die."

Okay, so that's about it right?  We covered the relationship stuff so we're good.  We don't need any of that political stuff do we?  That's the boring stuff.  Oh, all right, maybe a little so we're not lost in the next episode.  In a stand against Gi Cheol, the king has said that he will hold a sermon for the people to ask them what kind of king they want.  He wants to be a king of the people.  Gi Cheol hires some renowned assassins (they have a name that I forgot, so we'll just call them the Deadly 7 because that's pretty darn close) to help eliminate everyone that shows up to the sermon.

Choi Young gets a very important person on the king's side so long as he vows to keep them all safe if they come to the meet and greet.  This is when CY decides that the best tactic is the simplest - Gi Cheol is the problem, and so instead of trying to protect hundreds of people, just take out the one problem.  There.  That should about cover us.  Big meeting, lots of death on the horizon, Choi Young going to take care of business even though it will get him killed unless Eun Soo can talk him out of it.

Boom.  Episode 11...reviewed.

Now, off to 12!