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Airing Time:April 15th, 22:50 Seoul
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GRAND PRINCE LIVE RECAP EPISODE 14
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#1
OPENING
Kang tells JH that she finally came to him after Hwi died. JH says that she can’t go to someone else since he is not in the world. He wants to know if the reason is because he is a King now. She asks him if he wants to hear the answer. She goes a little closer to him and takes out her hair ornament.
JH – To get my revenge! I came here to kill you by myself.
She pushes Kang onto his back. NG shows up at the door but the maid is keeping her from going inside. Kang tells JH to kill him, stab him, do you think I killed Eun-sung? No, he tried to escape.
JH – You were the one who blamed an honest person.
Kang pushes her off of him and yells for someone outside. The maid comes in with NG. They see what is happening. Kang tells them to take the lady and put her in a secret room where she meets no one and no one comes in or out. The maid asks JH to follow her.
NG – You finally came to the palace.
JH – Am I going to die?
Kang – Not yet. I came to this position so hard, so I can’t just let you go like that.
Kang passes out, NG and the maid run to his side. JH looks at him on the floor, thoroughly satisfied.
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#2
The head maid tells the younger maids to find out which room they came from. Then the maids put JH in one of the rooms. It doesn’t look like a bed room.
Kang is laying in bed, still passed out, the doctor is next to him. He thinks he took something, perhaps some medicine that doesn’t agree with him. He will give him something to make him feel better and look out for him. NG is upset and storms out of the room.
ISLAND
LSG runs all around the island looking everywhere. She whistles, but no one whistles back. Somehow she finds her way to Hwi’s house on the island. She goes inside and starts looking around. But first she drinks some water and eats some of the food that he has there. However, a knif is put to her throat. Who are you?
SG fights it off and then turns and finds out that it is KT! They are so happy to see each other.
PALACE
NG runs around everywhere, she is at a room, JH’s room, and tells them that they should know who she is, she has the Kings order, open the door. NG goes inside and holds JH by her face. She asks what JH did to the King. JH tells her that she gve him poison, not some seduction drug. NG slaps her. They argue but JH doens’t really care what NG says. NG tells the maids to come in, they have a prisoner to torture.
ISLAND
Hwi is alive and SG is meeting with him. She touches him all around and says his name. She is shocked that it is really Hwi and tears up. Then she starts hitting him. He rubs her on her head and puts his hand on he shoulder.
Hwi – I am sorry that I didn’t tell you in advance, where you super scared? It was a dangerous plan, you could have been in danger. But we didn’t have any other way back then.
SG – What happened? What about the body and the tomb? What happened?
Flashback. The guard is about to kill Hwi. Hwi says he didn’t kill the crime, but he is okay to die by the hands of a loyal son. KT comes in and hits the guard on the head. He is knocked out. But he comes to with KT next to him and a bandage on his head. KT offers him something and says that his Prince is not a betrayer, he had a lot of chances to escape when we were in the North, but he wanted to live with our people. That is why we stayed and fought, time will tell the truth. You should find out who the real enemy is and understand why you are still alive.
That same day the old army people showed up and the guard sees how they treated him. He starts to contemplate it all. Later we see him on the mainland, he has visitors from henchmen. Then he goes to Hwi and tells him that what he said is true, they don’t want to leave you alive. Hwi asks him if he trusts him now. The guard says that he remembered what his father said about him, he is a poor guy, to block Jin-young you do all these things only to protect the King. Your father wanted the little King to become the King as it should be. i will go back tot he Palace and figure out the truth. But if he dies then the truth will be buried.
KT tells him that they need a body that is a similar size to the prince. Cut to a montage of the soldiers preparing everything for their plan. They get a protective chest guard for Hwi and fake blood under it. Then we cut to the guard find the perfect time to shoot. He waits and aims….then at the perfect moment, he fires. Hwi falls into the ocean and the guard says that he got his revenge by himself.
But Hwi is still alive and runs to the shore. His army people wait for him and help pull him onto the beach. He pulls the arrow out of his chest and removes the clothing. they put the clothing on the body double and attach the arrow. Then they smash his face in, but no one can watch that happen, not even the person doing it.
Later, the body is found, but they cant recognize the face and assume that the rocks crushed it.
Back to the present. KT asks SG why she didn’t go back with the boat. She says it is because she didn’t believe it since the face was all crushed. KT smiles and says that she is smart. Then they start to worry about JH. She thinks Hwi is dead, so SG wants to tell her as soon as possible.
Inside, Hwi says that it takes 2 days for the ship to come back, he is worried about JH, he doesn’t know what she will do. The son-guard tells him that she is a great woman to find him there, she went all the way there for him.
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#3
KT tells him that she waited the three years he was missing so she should be olay. But he says that it is different this time, she saw his body and tomb, she should be sad. He is worried that she is doing something stupid.
PALACE
Kang is fine. He says he doesn’t need anymore medicine. NG tells him that he became like this because he wanted to have her, he should execute her. He tells her that she shouldn’t worry about it, he will take care of it. NG says that she wants to protect him, it is the first day that he became King, he can have all the women he wants, but not JH. kang says that she was his first and Eun-sung took her from me. NG says she was her friend.
Kang lets her know that Kings have affairs, it doesn’t mean they aren’t good Kings. Kang asks her why she didn’t tell he, if she was from a strong family then he didn’t have to do all these things to make his power great. She reminds him that she is his servant. Kang tells her to make it like nothing happened yesterday and to not do anything.
Grand Queen. The maid tells the Grand Queen that someone is in the room where they punish the female servants. this is not good.
Cut to JH getting tortured by NG and her servants. NG wants her to tell her everything. JH says that she just wants her to hurt, she is torturing her because she just wants to accuse innocent people, it is all her, there is no one else.
Meanwhile, Kang is at the political meeting of the scholars. They talk about a scholar event. If they don’t attend a scholar event, it means that they don’t listen to people. This is a very important event, as a King, you should listen to what we say. The most important thing is that we need to grant your Kingship from China so you need to call the great King and get permission. Where is the great scholar? Kang says he has family issues so he didn’t come today. Then Kang starts talking about how Joseon is weak right now, he wants to make Joseon a strong Kings land right now.
After the meeting, the maid tells Kang that the wife is torturing JH. He sighs. The maid says you cannot torture high noble women without permission, it is not permitted. Kang takes off to the area.
JH is about to be waterboarded. NG says she won’t be able to breath and will die of suffocation, you know that? So tell me. She doesn’t tell her and passes out. Kang comes in at that moment and yells, what are you doing here!
He takes the wrapping off of JH’s face and she starts breathing right away. He commands them all to take JH inside and get a doctor for her! The torturer will be killed and he will find out who stopped the guard. Then he rails into NG, she wants to be Queen but she doesn’t know the law! NG speaks all her nonsense back. She asks why she isn’t the Queen yet. Kang says that he hasn’t decided if she is good enough to be Queen, so he hasn’t decided yet. He leaves and she seethes.
ISLAND
The son-guard and Hwi talk. they basically say that they need one more day for the ship. He will work in the palace and can help him from the inside. Hwi talks about him having a hard time. He tells him that he will hide in the temple until that day. Then he turns to look at the ocean.
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#4
PALACE
NG and Kang talk to the Queen. NG mentions that JH has a grudge against them. The Queen basically thinks that JH has a grudge against them because there is a rumor that they killed Eun-sung. But NG and Kang try to sweet talk the Grand Queen. The Queen says to promote NG as the Queen quickly so there won’t be any more rumors around. Kang is angry about that and leaves.
Kang goes to see JH, she is laying on the floor in pain. He is also in pain as he looks at her, but he also wants to strangle her. But he can’t, because he loves her. Instead, he goes to the pond and looks at it. He tells his guard that he still wants to hold her in his arms. the guard basically thinks he is risking too much for her.
ISLAND
Hwi boards the boat to the mainland. he gets there and is in disguise as he looks at a posting in the city. They say that a robber became a King. Hwi goes to JH’s house and finds out that she is at the Palace right away after the prince died. A lot of people are at the house and throw rocks at them. The brother comes out and tells them all to go away. But he sees SG at the gate and talks to her.
She asks where JH is. The brother says that she went to the palace right away and became the wife of the King. No one accepts her and she didn’t want to be unmarried forever, that is why she went to the palace. SG curses the brother in Jurgen and leaves.
Inside, SU tells Ahn to stay home, he will go back and get her. Ahn is worried though and wants to find out if she is dead or alive. She is okay with all the people that mock them. She is okay so long as her family is okay. Appa thinks that they should have the report if she is his second wife or not. He will get the report from the palace. Ahn tells him to bring JH to her, please.
Meanwhile Hwi walks off ina daze after hearing that JH went to the palace. KT tries to talk to him about it, maybe she was forced to go to the palace. SG says to forget her, she is a betrayer, she only wants to be well as a woman. But Hwi says for them to not talk badyly about her. He is happy she didn’t kill herself, maybe she has her reasons.
PALACE
JH is in all kinds of pain and probably has a fever as she lays on the cold hard Palace floor.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
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#5
SU meets with the Grand Queen, he tells her that it is okay to have a disgrae to his family name, but the King is being mocked by people. Before a rumor spreads, please let me take my daughter home. The Queen lets him know that she will remove her soon. SU wants his daughter to live in a temple. The Queen says that this situation is all kinds of bad, JH only has two options, either kill herself or become a monk. She knows he doens’t want her to die, so she should be a monk.
Kang meets with NG and basically tells her that she didn’t listen to his order. That is enough to fire her from being Queen. JH is half dead already, her father will be angry which will create a huge issue, JH needs to leave the palace safely or it will be a big problem for everyone.
TEMPLE
Hwi thanks the monk for taking a dead persons money. The monk says he isn’t helping Hwi because of the money, he just wants Joseon to be closer to Buddha and for Hwi to make Joseon a better country.
Inside, the son-guard meets with Hwi. Hwi thinks there is a reason JH is at the palace. Song-guard tells him that no one knows about her, but he will find out from the servants. They start to talk about who made the cue and blamed Eun-sung. Son-guard suspects YG because she is always around and being sent on errands. She is his person.
PALACE
JH is sitting it. One of the maids asks JH how she feels, is she okay? She will prepare a carrier. JH has a request, can she see where Eun-sung used to stay? Can she just visit there? before she gets into the carrier. The maid says it will be difficult, but it looks like she will try and make it happen.
Meanwhile, son-guard meets with YG and talks about the cur members. he tells her that he needs to find the woman that asked them to do the cue. YG asks him why he is asking her. The son-guard says there is a mysterious woman who told the cue members that Eun-sung wanted it. YG tells him that he is saying something dangerous, do you think the sinner stays there? Son-guard laughs and says, of course.
Cut to YG talking with one of her gisaengs. they think about what just happened. This guard is the person who killed Eun-sung, but they don’t know what kind of person he is or what side he is on. Is he a greedy person to be promoted or did he just want revenge for his father or does he just want to shake up everything.
the son-guard leaves and tells Hwi that he things YG is the one, that bad woman. Hwi says that things can change, they need to get ahold of her and the lady will leave the palace. JH wanted to have her, but there isn’t permission from the Queen and the new Queen doesn’t’ like her so she will become a monk.
At the palace, the maid is able to get JH into Eun-sungs room. She looks around at all his painting supplies, paintings, scrolls, books, and just everything.
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#6
She sees the flower they drew together and starts crying.
Afterward, she walks out and sees NG. NG thinks this is good, she can pray for Eun-sung forever. JH says she will pray for a riteous world. The maid tells her that she should be more respectful to NG and not treat her as her friend anymore. JH tells her, are you happy that you have everything? NG says it is not comparable to her unhappiness. Remove the little lady.
They take JH and put her in the carrier. the guards escort her out. kang watches as she leaves.
Kang – Before she goes to the temple, you have to snatch her.
The carrier leaves the Palace and the trio of soldiers follows it. hwi also has a plan to snatch her. He gets his dagger and sword ready. KT looks at him and sighs.
KT – my prince, can you just…maybe it is better for her to become a monk, so long as she is there, no one can touch her. We can’t take care of her here and she can’t go back home, it is safer for her to stay there until you regain your name.
Hwi – I want to see her…I want to see her with my own eyes.
the guard goes to teh Temple and presents some money to them. He says that every month they will have that much money. But no one should know that she is there.
Cut to the trip following the carrier. it is dark now so it is easiery to hide. SG is also watching from afar right along with Hwi.
Hwi sees JH get out of the carrier and it is the most amazing sight for him. JH sighs and follows the monk inside. Hwi wants to run to her at that moment, but KT holds her back.
But then some other guards pull JH away and put her into another carrier. Hwi runs up and tells them not to touch the lady!
Everyone comes out and they all fight. The trio takes the carrier with KT. SG and Hwi fight everyone, but they don’t kill any of them. Then they run off to catch the carrier. Everyone smiles as Hwi runs up and then they excuse themselves so he can open the door.
Hwi takes a deep breath and opens the door. he sees her and puts out his hand for her to take it. She isnt’ looking at him and is defiant. But then it looks like she recognizes his hand. She takes it and gets out. She stands up and looks at Hwi. He removes his mask and they both look at each other stunned.
JH – Am I dead? Now, in a different world, I see you.
She hugs him and he hugs her. They stand like that for a moment as they just comfort each other in their hug. JH is teary and Hwi is a mixture of stunned and disbelief.
Fade Out
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Thank you so much for the live recaps…
Love makes u crazy? I think this is the main point of this story… LK relentless pursuing, JH who doesn’t care about anything else except LH…, LH betting a very high stake by rescuing JH, surely LK will be super suspicious… Still, the storyline is making me really curious where the writer will bring all the characters..
Yes, that makes sense as the main point because at least 2 main characters are going super crazy for love. At least Hwi maintains a level head when it comes to jihyun. But he goes crazy for the Love of his brother. I enjoyed the ending of this episode.
Another way to look at this “love” triangle:
– Kang doesn’t love anyone, especially Na-gyeom — but wants to be loved by his family and Ja-hyun;
– Hwi loves everybody, especially his kin, Gi-teuk, and Ja-hyun;
– Ja-hyun loves Hwi and her maid Kkeut-dan, and is indifferent to her family, although she seems to care for her mother.
Who does Na-gyum love? Maybe she really loves Kang? Or maybe she loves power but doesn’t have it yet?
Thank you for the amazing recaps👯
@Kazuko, loved your above comment. Love definitely is making JH go crazy. I am happy Hwi appeared before she lost her mind completely.
Thank you very much for the live recaps! I love this drama but usually have to wait a while for the complete subtitles provided by the hardwoking subbing team so it’s great to watch the raw with your recaps.
Is it weird that I have started to find the story a bit boring now? What I liked about the love triangle was that Kang was not in crazy, hopeless love with Ja-Hyung and was driven by his greed of everything his brother has, and Ja-Hyung was not having any of that. But when we entered the second time Hwi is declared dead, I was hoping more would happen. I guess I kind of wanted Ja-Hyung’s revenge to be more than just killing Kang, because it feels so short-sighted and selfish considering the punishment of regicide at the time.
My favourite moments in the drama has been when Ja-Hyung and Kang are together, having a conversational battle of selfishness, integrity and practicality. I still definetely prefer Ja-Hyung with Hwi as a couple, but when it was only her and Kang it felt like she had a fire and determination she otherwise doesn’t (mostly because she feels threatened by him and has to defend herself, in a sense). But now that we move on from any story between the two of them and are again with Hwi, while I am curious what will happen I am also disappointed that the story didn’t go further in that regard. Almost as if I’d want Hwi to be actually dead and Ja-Hyung having to plan a long-time revenge like the gisaeng did. But to have Kang “instantly” forgive her and want her back bugs me, because while I don’t mind that he doesn’t fall out of “love” with her, having her get away so easily and get back with Hwi again felt, I don’t know, too easy. Maybe it is because we already went through a period where Hwi was assumed dead, I don’t know. It just kind of feels like nothing really happened this week, even when Kang became king. Hopefully things will speed up a bit next week.
agree. There’s not enough scene to really build up the chemistry of love from kang to JH. i can’t really feel the pain of love from Kang towards JH either. i wish they could spend more scene (or episodes) together so the painful unrequited love can be shown , just like in seven days queen. the writer put too much problem but not enough episodes.
I was annoyed/bored with it when Hwi forgave his brother AGAIN after he got back from Jurgen. If he does it one more time then I will just have to reach through my screen and slap some sense into him.
Yes, agreed. When it was just that Kang wanted JH because he wanted everything Hwi had, it was ok that we didn’t see the chemistry build, and I could potentially see that he developed slight fondness for her when he hugged her three years ago. And I personally like to think that asking for her hand became more like a habbit, a game for him, because he liked being around her but, being a greedy semi-bully, that is the only way for him to be by her. But now that she has done pretty bad things and he actually shows signs of genuinely being fond of her, it feels less believable.
Like you said, Seven Days Queen had a good way for it; Yeonsan was already pretty isolated from his family, CK became his family and they kept contact through letters for five years. He feels fondness and possessive feelings for her, and it is always believeable. It also helps that when she crosses the line and betrays him, even when she kneels and offers herself, he doesn’t let her off and makes it clear that he lost trust in her (even if he still loves her) and thus must be compensated by hurting Yeok. While I appreciate Grand Prince for its complex female characters and relationships, when it comes to unrealistic drama, SDQ did much better to keep it real. And again, the best moments in SDQ, other than the main-ship’s cuteness, was when CK and Yeonsan were together, and I felt the same with JH and Kang even when they are entirely different couple from CK and Yeonsan.
Perhaps that is why, for all its glaring faults, I liked the Chinese drama The King’s Woman so much during its run; the female lead did not like the antagonistic male lead who forced her to come to him through the man she actually loved, and a lot of the drama for a while was them having these intense conversations to see who would yeld first, and what the female lead would do. Maybe with that drama in mind, I wanted Hwi to be actually dead and see what JH would do in the long run, now that the agreement she had with Kang is technically void, but her family might be in danger, AND, like the female lead in TKW, she would make the best of her situation; Hwi wanted a peaceful country, so she will do everything in her might to make sure that happens even with Kang as king.
Again, mostly just wishful thinking that might not even have been that good, but right now there better be SOMETHING that happens next week beyond Kang wishing for JH’s hand and JH risking her family’s life because of her own love.
Thanks for your recap, V!
Ja-hyun came through with bells on. Instead of knuckling under and attempting to commit suicide as Kang expected, she nearly succeeded in killing him. If only Kkeut-dan had given her a bigger dose of powdered castor bean. (It contains ricin, a deadly poison. Aside from its medicinal uses, castor powder was used to kill weevils in stored grain.) Her ruthlessness was a long-overdue breath of fresh air.
I couldn’t get over the look on Kang’s face when she told him she came for revenge as she held her pointy hairpin to his neck. He thought he’d swept her off her feet with the prospect of becoming his queen. How totally delusional. That’s what he gets for telling Ja-hyun that he’d tried to rustle Hwi’s first love, and that the little court lady died. It never occurred to him that such an admission could sound abhorrent to another person.
But I’ve got to hand it to Kang: his end-run around both the Queen Dowager and not-yet-queen Na-gyeom took chutzpah. It could have succeeded with a more docile target, but Ja-hyun’s gloves are now off. Despite his secret having been revealed by Na-gyeom to his mother, he never gave up. He ordered his minions to shanghai Ja-hyun on her way to the Buddhist nunnery. His persistence would be admirable were he not such a creep.
I enjoyed watching Na-gyeom fume at Kang’s bid to replace her. They so deserve each other. It’s not clear to me that she’s actually been installed as queen as of the end of the episode. Surely we should get to see her lording it over everyone in sight during the ceremony. Or will Kang find a way to ditch her?
All along I’ve been expecting to hear something about the Ming Emperor’s approval/confirmation of King Kang. Sure enough, it was mentioned in this episode. In his youth, Hwi spent time in China, and I expect that, given the high regard in which he was held as a scholar and artist, he has friends in high places. It was stated in this episode that he could have escaped numerous times, but remained in Manchuria until he could bring the rest of the Joseon prisoners with him. I’m willing to bet that Ming spies kept the Emperor informed of Traitorous Uncle’s consorting with the Jurchens, and may even have acquired the evidence of his treason. Or maybe they have forged a reasonable facsimile. 😉
The scene of Kang on the bridge dropping a white chrysanthemum flower into the pond where Hwi had earlier dropped one for his court lady (LOL at the splashes!) indicated that he was conflicted over his brother’s death even as he stated otherwise to his henchman. Later, as he was dancing with the gisaeng at Yo-kyung’s gibang, her observation that he doesn’t know what he feels was very telling. In some respects, Kang is as much a victim as Hwi — and maybe even more so. His aggressive bullying as a child concealed his emotional deprivation.
The show’s real villain is Traitorous Uncle, and has been from the start. He sits like a fat spider pulling the strings in a web of spies, minions, and collaborators. What a tangled web he has woven. He corrupted one young nephew and isolated and intimidated the other. Now that he’s succeeded in enthroning Kang and getting himself appointed Prime Minister, his sycophants have suddenly realized that they are now at his mercy just as their dead opponents had been. They’re quietly having kittens, and it serves them right. They all signed that pledge of allegiance when Kang framed Hwi, and know he will throw them under the Ox Cart Of Doom without a second thought.
The one thing that bothered me this episode was Hwi’s looking like Billy the Kid when liberating Ja-hyun from Kang’s palanquin. It was supposed to be a dramatic revelation when he dropped his mask, but it was clunky. After having been kidnapped, it would have been far kinder to Ja-hyun if her first glimpse of Hwi had been his bare face. She still could have thought she’d died and gone to heaven.
I hope to heck that the first thing Hwi and Ja-hyun do is hold a nice wedding at the temple. They already have plenty of witnesses, and a bona fide Buddhist Friar Laurence, too. 😉 Or will they hedge their bets (to avoid endangering her family with treason if their efforts fail?) and wait until Kang and Uncle are well and truly vanquished so they can have a blowout befitting a daegun and his bride?
Was there a funny splash when he dropped the flowers? Now I want to rewatch that episode!
I felt the same thing with Hwi removing his mask. I thought it was too much showmanship. I think I would have liked it better if he removed his mask first and we saw the door open to his face. Or even better, it would have been funny if JH was ready to escape and punched/kicked him in the face as soon as he opened the door. But after that, they had their beautiful reunion.
The splashes of both flowers sounded like a rock dropping in, or maybe a fish leaping. It was so jarring I had to go back and check what just happened. LOL.
I agree — having the door open to reveal Hwi’s unmasked face would have been great. But the idea of Ja-hyun belting him in the puss would have been a great clue to him that she has changed and doesn’t take Kang’s BS lying down.
Lol, ASMR/sound fail! I wonder if the sound guy was like…hmm, that was way too loud, but we’re live shoot now so roll with it.
Hi V! Is it just my bad internet connection or is there no recap for Episode 15?
No recap for 15! We are catching up on the old recaps we have to post. We will be back up with Grand Prince live recaps next weekend!