But, you aren't here for my social calendar recap. Oh no, you're here because of this awesome episode of Faith, aren't you? Well, at least I thought it was pretty awesome. Maybe you did too. Maybe not. But if you didn't like it, why would you want to spend time reading more about it? I dunno. The jokes? The witty repartee? Hahaha. No, I didn't think so either. So I'm going to assume that we are of similar mind when it comes to Faith episode 12 in that it was pretty cool.
What made it so cool? Why, the romance of course. Duh. No, we didn't get a confession or lip lock or anything like that - but we did have some good old romance Goryeo-style. Some intense stares mingled with some hair fondling and frost-bitten hand holding. Goryeo-style romance to make one go a little weak in the knees. Oh yeah.
Other stuff happened too of course, but what really stuck out to me was the budding romance between our two leads. I suppose that the other stuff should be mentioned as well, at least the parts that I still remember nearly a week later after watching it.
How about the beginning where Choi Young goes to kill Gi Cheol? They do a little switcheroo on us, showing us one scene that ends in a *GASP!* moment, only to then reveal it as an imagined fight in the mental planning phase. Choi Young's plan, in short, is to kill Gi Cheol by killing himself as well - get him behind him then run them both through with a sword. You would think that getting run through with a sword once in one's life would be plenty, but no, here goes Choi Young about to do it again.
The real, non-imaginary battle between Choi Young and Gi Cheol begins. It's one of those artistic, Asian-style fight scenes with unnatural flying and gliding and whatnot. But what a piece of art it was! Specifically, what a piece of art Lee Min Ho was. Ahhh...fight scene. He's just so pretty, isn't he?
The crucial moment comes - the fight is playing out just like he pictured it when.... "STOP!" Eun Soo comes riding up to stop them, holding a knife to her own throat.
They both just kind of stand there dumbly looking at her trying to figure out why/how she's there. She is successful though in her threat and the fight ends after she tells Gi Cheol something he's been dying to know for a while now - how and when he dies (about 4-5 years, killed by the current king in case you also are curious). Gi Cheol takes this information and then stomps off, leaving our two hatchling love birds alone.
These cute little clueless hatchlings then start yelling at each other. Both are angry with the other for putting his/her life on the line so casually.
Eun Soo hits him with a "you know what it feels like to be the one left behind - why would you put anyone else through that?", referencing his dead fiance. That makes him pause and he promises to not throw away his life so easily like that again. Ah good, progress. Speaking of progress, how about the scene that follows where he's nursing his frozen hand from his fight with Gi Cheol and his frosty powers? She sees it, reaches over, holds his hand between hers and gently tries to warm it with her breath.
Oh my. The look on his face! Whoa! I felt kind of dirty watching such an innocent yet intimate scene.
He reaches over, gently tucks her hair behind her ear so that he can see her face, and sees that she's crying.
Oh the joy of a subtle yet steamy romantic scene such as this! Chills, and not the kind you get from Gi Cheol.
Speaking of Gi Cheol and his frosty powers, we get a bit of good news on that front. It seems as if his powers are more limited than we originally thought. Choi Young thinks that he cannot beat Gi Cheol's version of the Cold War (*rim shot*) because when they have faced off in the past, Gi Cheol was able to overpower him. But it seems as if those face-offs pushed Gi Cheol too far. We see him, shivering and sick and weak, hopping into a nice hot bath to revive himself while being scolded by his underling for pushing it too far.
Yay! A weakness! Granted, it's not all good news as Gi Cheol is spending this time thinking about his death and what he needs to do to alter the future. But at least we know now that he's not invincible and that Choi Young's lightning power is most likely stronger in the long run. Let's hope so. He is the hero of the story after all...his powers better be stronger than the bad guy.
I adored the scene between Choi Young and Eun Soo as they are forming a partnership. They are both after the same thing ultimately, beating Gi Cheol, so Eun Soo thinks they should team up and form a partnership. Her enthusiasm and exuberant handshake earn him a little shame and embarrassment in front of his men who are all watching this wide-eyed and slack jawed.
They are the talk of the town - at least the Woodalchi barracks. Ooh, the scandal! At least they didn't catch him strapping a knife on to her leg - that would have really raised some eyebrows. It sure raised mine...in a "ooh la la" kind of way. The Woodalchi aren't the only ones who see something burgeoning between the two. When they sit down with the king and queen they have a very open argument between the two of them as to what Eun Soo should/shouldn't divulge regarding what she knows about history/the future.
The king sees what's up. The queen sees what's up. Lady Choi sees what's up.
So what really is up? How is our hero feeling about our leading lady at this point? We get a pretty clear picture when he removes the strip of cloth that belonged to his dead fiance from the hilt of his sword and puts it away in a chest. I don't know about you, but I think he likes our High Doctor. What do you think? Hubba hubba!
And how cool is Lady Choi? After witnessing the public argument, she comes to find her nephew. She acts all innocent in the role she played in Eun Soo's running off to stop his fight with Gi Cheol. She properly scolds him for putting his life on the line, they chat a little about Eun Soo, Choi Young in shock that someone who hates the spilling of blood so much was willing to hold a knife on her own throat to save him. Then they talk about the spy that is obviously lurking around. Gi Cheol knew he was coming, and coming to die. This was talked about only in front of the queen and ??? Lady Choi starts to suspect who the spy is, but instead of going after her, they decide instead to use her.
Enter Eun Soo. She starts to divulge information about the future that she knows from history. Jo Il Shin follows her around like a hungry dog lapping up her crumbs.
Of course, the information she's providing is all a lie, designed to confuse and stop Gi Cheol dead in his tracks when it comes to killing off supporters of the king. The people they thought weren't supporters were and vice versa. Gi Cheol starts to think that the 5 they already killed probably would have been on their side instead of the king's. All in all, it's mass confusion that Eun Soo's trickery is causing in Camp Gi Cheol. Now they're afraid to kill anyone, for fear that they will eliminate the wrong people. They are also setting it up so that the 7 assassins will set their sights on Choi Young, believing that he is the one person alone who knows of this "safe house" where the real supporters of the king are being kept. This is so Choi Young can take out the assassins prior to the king's sermon, thus protecting the lives of those who come. It really is all quite clever and appears to work effectively.
Gi Cheol of course won't just sit idly by though. He shows up in the queen's chamber looking for the High Doctor. He then threatens the king, saying that his sister, the Empress of Yuan, might just be thinking about putting a new king on the throne.
This dramatically serious scene is followed up with a nice, lighthearted one. The queen is concerned about her husband and wants to help him feel better, what with all the stress he's currently under and all. She asks for advice from Lady Choi. Lady Choi however is unmarried and therefore doesn't know how to help a husband de-stress. So they ask the married guy standing there. He starts by telling them that his wife gives him alcohol. Then when he's drunk.... He pauses here, realizing with horror what he just about said to the queen of all people. The queen and Lady Choi are clueless and keep pestering him to finish what he was talking about.
He's all prostrated on the ground, begging to be killed instead, but they finally get it out of him - that when he's drunk he and his wife sleep together.
Hahaha. Cheesy? Yes, but still funny. The queen's face was awesome.
And of course just then the king walks in, "whatcha all talking about?" I enjoy that this drama still throws in some levity every once in awhile to help mellow the well, drama, of it all.
We finish off this episode with a couple of things. One, Choi Young has started knocking off assassins. He even bears his soul a little to one of them, gushing on about Eun Soo and her ability to live life fully, not just live.
He takes out 6 of the 7 before finally dropping his sword and collapsing. That's actually the moment where the episode ends - with him sitting there, bleeding, weakened, head back with one assassin still on the loose.
But before that, a new character is introduced that you know will be a game changer. Enter Prince Deok Heung, the king's uncle. He was approached by Gi Cheol's side, but only spouted off random poetry before walking away.
The next we see him, he's found Eun Soo and returns her diary to her. Who's side is he on? We don't really know quite yet. At this point we know that Gi Cheol wants him and has given him the diary to give to Eun Soo, but where his allegiances truly lie, we don't know that for sure yet. My suspicion is that this is who Gi Cheol would like to place on the throne in place of the current king. We'll just have to see how that all plays out, now won't we?
All in all, a great episode with some lovely romantic advances being made finally. It's pretty clear that Choi Young is falling for the doctor, where she stands is still a little murky. Obviously she cares for him, but whether or not she's willing to admit that to even herself at this point is still anyone's guess. We are halfway done though with the drama -- hopefully sometime soon we'll see some real romance starting between the two of them. As well as the king and queen. Until then, I'll gladly enjoy moments like in this episode where so little says so much.
And now, by this time, episode 13 has aired and I've heard rumor that it is finished subbing on Viki. Enjoy and we'll see you back here next time Faithfuls - hopefully a little earlier than this time around ;)
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