I really enjoyed the first episode of Grand Prince, it actually surprised me. I need a good epic drama to get into after Hwayugi ends, so hopefully Grand Prince fits the bill. We live recap Misty on Saturdays at 8am, so we aren’t able to live recap Grand Prince at that time. But we are able to live recap Grand Prince on Sundays. Whoo hoo! We’ll see how it goes.
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Character Chart: Shorthand Character Chart
How to Watch: Live Stream, Viki
Airing Time: March 4th, 22:50 Seoul
Countdown: KKEUT
GRAND PRINCE LIVE RECAP EPISODE 2
OPENING
JY says that Hwi won’t be back and she should come to him. Then we see when the Queen found out that her son is alive. These are all recapped scenes from the first episode. JY tries to meet the king but Hwi comes out instead and says the King’s last wish is for their younger brother to become King and they should protect him. ES rushes to JH’s home to meet her and tell her not to marry anyone else. But the father says that isn’t possible. But he screams Ja-hyun and she runs out of the house to him.
BRIDGE
ES sprinkles flowers into the water and asks Yunah if she is okay over there, is she still a little girl or is she all grown up, he doesn’t even remember her face anymore. The brother comes out from behind a tree and shoots the flower petal in the water. He comes out to ES and asks him if he is playing with flower petals like a girl? They should go hunting together, but ES doesn’t like hunting.
This is before ES went to the war, so they still have an okay relationship.
We also see a lot of women arriving at one location and getting out of their carriers. Na-gym is there and Ja-hyun is there as well. NG and JH are best friends. JH is about to come out of the carrier, but she is sleeping so her servant has to wake her up. JH finally wakes up and wipes drool from her mouth like a Disney princess.
Cut to manners class. The teacher explains how a lady should walk and has everyone try it. JH tries but steps on her own dress and falls. Everyone laughs so the teacher kneels and asks if she is really Ja-hyun or is this Ja-hyun’s maid? Then she tells her to work hard to marry one of the princes. But she says she doesn’t want to marry one. Sul-hwa, Na-gyum, and Ja-hyun talk about being honest and mock each other like best friends.
But then JH breaks out of class in the middle of it. Her maid tries to get her to stay but JH just mischievously gets by her and runs to the market. Hwi is at the market walking around as well. JH is able to get to the store she wanted to go to and somehow gets into a fight with the owner. JH wants a powder for painting and everyone is pulling on the bottle. But then the bottle top comes off and falls all over her dress and the ground. The dye is super expensive palace dye. She has to pay for it!
Hwi sees all of this going on and watches. The man tells them they have to pay for it, or she has to give him her maid! But then Hwi comes in and pull on JH’s skirt, he runs his fingers over the dye and looks at it. He asks about the dye. The merchant says that it is from overseas, that is why it is so expensive!
Hwi puts the dye on his tongue and asks JH to tell him what color his tongue is….it is black. Then Hwi asks the owner if this is really the dye that he sells their palace? She just has to pay one coin for it, because this dye is fake. It isn’t worth 100. Does he want to go to the police and get punished? The merchant apologizes, it is so hard to get real dye! Hwi tells his servant to tell the palace to get a different merchant for this dye and they leave. The maid leaves one coin for the merchant and they leave as well.
OUTSIDE
JH is smitten by Hwi (ES) and wants to talk to him. But he basically tells her that he gave her a favor and they can forget about what happened. She tells him he is rude! Why can he say banmal to a lady! Hwi tells her that she looks like a lady, she tells him that he looks like a nice boy, but he will have to pay for his rudeness.
He tells her, do you want to know who I am? I am …. from the Lee family of (region) of Seoul. Then he leans in and tells her not to forget his face and name. He leaves.
JH says that he looked nice, but he wasn’t, all the guys in Joseon are the same! Her maid leans in and tells her that she is also the same. Then we cut to Hwi talking to his servant. Are all the ladies like that? They say they don’t know, but she could have been angry in that situation. Hwi just rolls his eyes and keeps walking.
NA-HYUN AND SUL-HWA
They both sit for tea and talk about being a king’s wife or princes wife. They hear rumors that the king isn’t strong right now. They did all the background checks on the prince, why does NG want to be the wife of the prince and not the King? NG says he is a strong man and can kill a tiger. She is looking at the possibilities of what he can do in the future.
We cut to JY hunting for a wild hog. One shot, one kill. The uncle tells him that his nephew grew up a lot.
PALACE
Palace politicians argue about the King. The King doesn’t have any sons, so the other party wants to place the next king right now. All the high officials are talking, one wants to wait for the Kings’ son and the other side wants to elect Jin-yang as the next King. The King tells them not to fight. It looks like the King just became a king, they want him to get married and produce an heir to the throne. But one side thinks the King is too weak (physically and mentally) and want to place someone else right now, it doesn’t matter if he gets a wife or not.
It looks like the king has a main wife who is weak. She left to take care of her sickness and is not back yet, but she probably won’t be strong enough to make a baby. They need a new bride.
We cut to the King’s mother, she and her servants are talking about a secret plan to bring a woman into the palace to make a prince.
HWI
Hwi comes home and is immediately confronted by his mom. She wants to know why he went out when the funeral didn’t even end. He said he wants to get some dye for his painting, but the mom just yells that he is a prince, he can make his servants find the dye for him.
Meanwhile, JY and the uncle talk about how the last Kings funeral just ended. It looks like the Kings’ funeral lasts for 3 years? The funeral just ended so they have the new king who was just crowned. But the uncle thinks JY would be a good King. He thinks they should have a ball game to promote Lee Kang as the next King. But some monks start yelling at them, they shouldn’t cook and eat meat in a Buddhist temple.
But the uncle and prince just say they are royalty and can do what they want. But the monks tell them that this is a sacred place for Buddha! We cut back to Hwi. He has a whipping boy to take his punishment, so his servant is getting licks instead of him. But Hwi can’t take it, he doesn’t want his servant to get punished for something that is his fault. The mother tells him that the direct bloodline of the king cannot be punished, that is why his servant is being punished.
Cut to Hwi talking to his mother in her room. Hwi doesn’t know what to do, if he studies hard then they think he wants to be King, but if he doesn’t study hard then they think he is a stupid prince. He doesn’t know what to do, all the princes have a lot of pressure because the King is weak.
MONKS
Cut back to JY giving the monks a lot of money. He said it is for causing all the trouble and he wants to help calm the head monk a bit. They leave and JY asks if they have the tighter for him. His servant says they do.
Meanwhile, Hwi and his mother are still talking. She wants to know, will he pick a princess? She says that one of the Kings wives has a baby. The main wife died while giving birth and the mother sent another wife to the outside for her safety. This is all secret. She wants JY to get married first so he will be out of the palace. Hwi asks to pick his own wife, but the queen says that isn’t how it works. But Hwi says he can’t be in politics or anything, so can’t he pick his own wife?
JH AND HER MOTHER
JH catches her mother gambling with all the other ajummas. They playfully banter back and forth about how the mother can gamble here, her father will come back soon. All the women run out just in time to see the father come back. He asks his son if this was his wife’s day to hang out with other noble ajummas? He hurries to his wife’s’ suite.
The father bursts in and the mother and daughter try to hide all the gambling things. The father sees the daughters dress with all the ink on it and then sees all the gambling things. Again! The wife says that she didn’t want to play, all the ladies wanted to play. He tells her not to do it in their room anymore. But should she do it in their daughter’s room? They keep arguing about gambling, how can their daughter get married like this?
PALACE
JY lines up all the game he caught, even a tiger, outside for everyone to see. (But the tiger is fake). He says he went hunting for the Kings health and he should share it with their mother.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
Hwi and JY walk around the palace together. Hwi wants to know why JY didn’t bring him any game. JY laughs and gives him some medicine possible? But Hwi doesn’t want it. Then they start to talk about Hwi’s marriage. Hwi says he wants to pick someone that he wants to pick, he hasn’t found anyone yet, but he will keep looking. JY says he met someone, he can’t fool his brother. They walk and chat about that happily.
PREGNANT WIFE
Cut to the pregnant wife leaving a house. The maids worry about the safety of the baby, but the queen wants the baby to be born inside the palace, so she has to leave. Then we cut to the King talking to his mother about the baby. The King has to stop JY from becoming the next king by stopping the uncle and JY from hanging out together. Uncle will take advantage of JY and JY is a greedy person as well. He isn’t like Eun-sung (Hwi).
PALACE
The pregnant princess and the maids secretly sneak into the palace. Several other maids come out to greet them and cover the princes with their bodies to block people from seeing her. This woman is Lady Kim or Princess Kim.
EUN-SUNG
Hwi gets the medicine his older brother gave him and gives it to his servant. Then he looks at the dye and thinks about that girl from earlier, JH. He starts to paint. He spends his time painting a flower and then the scene changes and we see JH drawing the same flower. But she is super dirty drawing her flower and Hwi was very clean painter hers.
JH’s servant asks her if she has to make this huge mess as she paints. Her father and brother are super clean when they draw. But JH says they are all fake because they think of their form. When you are super focused then you forget about everything. That is painting. But JH thinks this drawing doesn’t give her any money and crumples it up. The mud tells her to just give it to her then and tries to unravel it. JH tells her that she wants to drive something alive and something that is very big like a tiger or a horse.
They start to talk about Chinese exams of drawings. Whoever won always drew butterflies, not horses. JH thinks she needs a good imagination and good foundation. They keep talking about those things. The maid says that she might have some chance because the horse is going to a Korean polo game so maybe she can go there and draw it! JH says that the maid is so genius, she is so lucky to have her as her maid! The maid jokes that she is so unlucky to have her as her Lady and they start to high five and celebrate.
POLO TOURNAMENT
Jin-yang says that he needs to definitely win this tournament. We also see that Hwi is also very good at horse riding, even though he likes “softer” things like painting and flowers.
Then we see JH trying to convince her father to take her with them. Take her to the tournament! But they leave without her. JH tells her maid to take off her clothes and the maid wonders, does she really want to go that far? JH tells her, let’s go!
The other friends also are there, they talk about meeting a prince while they are there. In the tournament, red is on JY’s side and blue is on Hwi’s side. It looks like NG is already appointed as the future wife of JY, so she tells her friend that she will try to help her marry any guy she wants. She can pick any man there and NG will make sure they get an introduction.
The tournament starts with the pounding of a huge gong. We see the blue and red teams start to play a game that looks like polo mixed with lacrosse. JH starts to draw the horses excitedly. She catches all the action and we see the screen freezing as the horses play and the horses turning into her paintings.
The red team scores and everyone starts to cheer, it looks like this might have turned on Hwi’s competitive side. Hwi scores right away. The two princes keep playing and face off as they ride their horses around. They have body contact and the younger brother falls, he might be injured! He grabs his arm, and everyone runs to his side. But he stands up, he is okay. JH sees him and gasps, is it that guy? But just then her brother, who is on the red team, sees her and starts to chase her.
Hwi waves to the crowd, he is okay. In the audience, the friend thinks that Hwi is so pretty, maybe he is the perfect person for her. NG says she should know the personality first, but the friend is pretty shallow and says Hwi is pretty so he should have a pretty personality as well.
Meanwhile, Hwi sees that his horse has been stabbed. He asks for a new horse. The new horse comes out and JY asks where his guy is, angrily. Well, his guy is still chasing after his sister. The sister runs into a house/Inn and hides in one of the rooms. The brother knows she is in there and tells her to come out. The sister manages to stay safely hidden though and checks out the room she is in, it is an armory room.
Back at the tournament, Hwi tells the horse person to take care of the horse, but it looks like he knows his brother did it. The servant tells Hwi to not let it go, but Hwi wants to let it go. He goes into the room that JH is in and starts to disrobe. JH is shocked and hides behind something quickly. But she isn’t very good at hiding and starts to make all sorts of noises with her breathing.
Meanwhile, Hwi looks too angry to notice anything right now.
Back at the polo tournament, the brother makes it back to the tournament, but the game has already started. He thinks that his sister finally came there. Hwi is back in the room and hears the cheering sound. Then we cut to a head maid whispering in the Queen’s ear. The King and queen both leave quickly. JY notices this.
The friends are still talking about men, what side are they on? Is SH on Eun-sung’s side already? But then SH starts talking bad about JH, she says she isn’t a good lady. But NG tells her to stop talking bad about her, she is actually worried about her.
ROOM
Cut back to the room. Hwi has taken all his top clothes off and is looking around the room. He sees the paintings that JH made that day of the horses and smiles as he looks at them. But then he sees her skirt from behind the curtain. He quietly grabs his sword and walks over to it. He unsheathes his sword and slashes at the curtain, it falls in layers revealing JH standing behind it. JH turns around…she has been caught.
But then they recognize each other. She says…Lee from (region)? And he says … Color-dye lady?
Fade Out
EPISODE 3 PREVIEW
SCENES
Scene 1: JH’s palanquin arrives at the bridal school, but she is taking a nap inside. She says to her friend that she doesn’t want to get married.
Scene 2: ES and JH’s first meeting at the painting supply shop.
Scene 3: JH thanks ES but it iturns into an argument. He gives her a fake name and tells her to remember him.
Scene 4: JH’s mom is caught gambling with other ladies in JH’s room. She says it is better than drinking.
Scene 5: ES gives medicine to KT. He thinks about JH and start to draw a flower.
Scene 6: JH wants to paint something big and active. She is happy to hear about the Korean Polo game, perhaps she can go there and draw horses in action.
Scene 7: ES and JY’s team are playing Korean polo. JH is happily drawing horses. ES (red team) scores first.
Scene 8: ES falls off of his horse because of his brother, JY’s, trap and is injured.
Scene 9: JH runs away from her brother and hides in an armory. At the same time, ES finds a big nail in his horse’s shoulder. He wants to keep it quiet.
Scene 10: JH sees ES’s naked upper body through the curtain. ES sees the drawing and ES,s dress. He grabs his sword, cuts the curtain, and finds JH behind it.