I am really looking forward to Hwi and Ja-hyun’s blossoming love story as well as the war years for Hwi. I am assuming that time period is where he stopped being a happy go lucky Prince and turned into the man from episode 1. There was still a little bit of that charm hiding underneath though, he just needs to be reminded of it.
NEWSLETTER: I plan on sending out our first newsletter soon-ish! Subscribe here.
How we do this: We update the post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos, but we try to fix all those once the episode finishes airing. Also, there might be updates galore at the bottom (time permitting), so check back in!
Character Chart: Shorthand Character Chart
How to Watch: Live Stream, Viki
Airing Time: March 11th, 22:50 Seoul
Countdown: KKEUT
GRAND PRINCE LIVE RECAP EPISODE 4
OPENING
Ja-hyung walks back into her home, but Prince Jin-yang gets in her way. He wants to find out why that other woman came out when it was her who wrote the letter. JH says that NG is the smartest among their friends so she thought he would like to meet her, but her friend is too good for him. Lee Kang walks toward her slowly which pushes JH backward, he asks her if she worries about her life, she insulted the royal family and yet she is still alive. JH wants to be excused, but he stops her. He tells her that she should replace her friend as his wife. But she says he is really crazy.
Hwi walks up at that moment and sees this scene, but he puts his head down. Lee Kang wants to know what this occasion is, but Hwi doesn’t speak to him. Lee Kang walks up to him and Hwi tells him that something happened in the palace, he should go back. Lee Kang leaves and Hwi looks at JH for a moment but then leaves as well. He looks like he was upset at what he saw.
JH goes back to her chambers sulking. The maid wants to know why she is so sad, did something happen? JH plays it off, nothing happened. She thinks back to what Lee Kang said about executing her because she insulted the royal family and that she should marry him. She sighs and puts her head in her hands.
Outside, Hwi tells Lee Kang that they have a new baby prince. The queen kept it secret from everyone, so they should go to the palace and congratulate the King.
Meanwhile, JH’s father talks to the uncle about all that is happening in the palace. They talk about the king as well and who should be King. The father says that if the King becomes king the right way, then Seong Uk will serve him. The uncle wants to know if the scholar is loyal to the palace or scholars. Does he want to have a world of scholars ruling?
Seong-Uk (JH’s father) leaves and walks the Prince out. He smiles and says he is happy to hear about the baby prince and he will invite them again for a party. But his look grows serious as he watches them leave.
KING
Both Princes meet with the king in order to greet their new family member. Prince Eun-sung is beaming about the baby. Prince Lee Kang also says that he really wants to see the baby, but the mood is gloomy as he says this and everyone feels it.
Afterward, Prince Jang-yang meets with his uncle. Uncle shows him some painkiller roots, but this particular painkiller is dangerous for a pregnant woman. Perhaps the Grand Queen figured out that the other miscarriages were not natural. Lee Kang (Prince Jang-yang) wants to know what to do now, the uncle says there is no guarantee that the baby will grow up okay, and everything has changed now that they have a young prince in the palace.
At the same time, Hwi is in his room painting a flower and thinking of when he saw JH with his brother. He tries to shake it off and keeps painting.
Cut to the King reading a decree. He will release a lot of criminals, lower taxes, and there will be no forced service to the government for two months, all this is done in congratulations and celebration of his son, the new heir to the throne. After the meeting, the older Prince and Younger prince look stressed(?) and the scholars all happily talk about their daughters becoming Queen.
ARCHERY
Lee Kang decides to relieve his frustrations on the archery field, but he is not concentrating. Uncle comes up to him and tells him that he needs strong in-law support. They need to give people bait to move on their side, they need bait. The little baby won’t be JY’s match, so what can he do? They have a lot of enemies attacking Joseon and a baby cannot take care of it. If something happens then someone else can take care of the country. We should send someone North (to Manchuria?).
At the same time, the Grand Queen is talking to someone about making the babies mother as the official #1 Queen and making that baby the official #1 prince in line to the throne.
JH AND HER MAID
The mood is much lighter in JH’s room as The maid talks to JH about her seeing the naked body of Hwi, did she touch him while fighting? JH tries to ignore her teasing and looks at her handkerchief gift, JH drew a flower on it. They think it is such a coincidence because that is the flower she wanted to paint. The maid tells JH that she should write Hwi a thank you letter.
Then we cut to NG meeting with Lee Kang (while the uncle chuckles at how bold NG is). Lee Kang wants to know how she knows that he is there and she says she heard that they are together. Jin-yang is slightly shocked, so she already has spies on him then? She thinks they can’t break the wedding (?), she can show this with her death. She pulls out a dagger to stab herself with it in the neck, but he stops her. He tells her that he will give it back to her on their first night together. He picks her up and tells her that she doesn’t’ have to prove anything, their marriage is already arranged, so what does she want to show him?
She says she doesn’t want to be dragged, she picked him with her will and she wants them to fulfill their dreams together. He tells her that he understands what she means and he will see her at the wedding. He leaves and she watches him in controlled frustration.
Meanwhile, Hwi talks to his servant, he didn’t tell her who he was right? Did she respond? What is her answer? But JH didn’t give him anything so that is why he came back. Hwi smiles at this and then starts to write a letter to Ja-hyun. Cut to her receiving it and reading it. The letter says, if you want to draw a horse, go to the horse stables and he will be her teacher.
The maid says, of course, he wants to see her, but she shouldn’t go there, she isn’t a gisaeng so she shouldn’t’ meet him in the daytime in an open area. She should meet him quietly in a separate area. JH thinks she is so confused, she shouldn’t meet him, but she should meet him?
HORSES
JH decides to meet him in boy clothes. At first, Hwi is all like, who is this? But then he recognizes her. He plays it off for a moment and asks her why she looks like this. So she tells him that men and women should be separate, it will ruin her reputation. He wonders why she cares about her reputation when she gave her hand to the prince. But JH just says she hates the prince, he is already betrothed. This brightens Hwi’s mood so they happily leave together and we see the Prince’s main guard following them.
PAINTING
JH and Hwi start painting, he explains how to draw a horse without an outline and tells her that she has to see the truth behind what she sees. They have an awkward moment of looking at each other and then they start painting together. Hwi coaches her a little verbally, but she is frustrated with how her painting looks. He gives her a new paper and takes her hand with his as he shows her how to paint each stroke on the paper. He tells her that she has to draw horses like this with running horses, that is how you make it look active.
JH gets a little upset/flustered though, men shouldn’t touch her wrist. He can just teach her with words. But JH takes it as a joke/literally because “words” and “horse” is the same word in Korean (words/horse = mal). So Hwi puts her on a horse as if he wants her to learn things practically. JH is scared and tightly holding onto the horse with her body pressed against it, she doesn’t know how to ride a horse. But Hwi just tells her not to be scared, the horse knows when you are scared. He tells her to sit up and then Hwi hops onto the horse as well behind her and takes the reins. They slowly ride together.
Meanwhile, Lee Kang wants the Gisaeng to try to win Hwi’s heart again. They also need to figure out the identity of the boy with Hwi. They don’t know this is JH.
With the horses, JH and Hwi ride happily around on the horse and then get off and walk around. She tells him her name and she wants to know his name as well. He tells her, Hwi..my name is Hwi. JH thinks it sounds like whistling and starts to whistle. But then she sees something in the distance and wonders who this woman is. Their heads turn and we see that it is the gisaeng.
Hwi goes up to her and tells him that she wants to serve him. He says he is undercover today and she says it is funny, she didn’t know he had these hobbies. She wants him to go to the gisaeng house and see her painting. Can he evaluate if it is fake or not? He tells her not today, but JH is listening in and tells him that they should go, you shouldn’t refuse a pretty woman’s request! But Hwi is more concerned with JH, he tells her that she shouldn’t go to a Gisaeng house.
But JH is less concerned so she just talks to Yoo-kyung directly and says she will go there.
GISAENG HOUSE
JH is immediately impressed with how pretty the gisaeng house is. But Hwi is just confused, why is she there? Why does she want to be there? She is the lady of a house. But JH thinks this is the only time she can draw pretty women. He quickly tells her, if she wants to draw pretty women then she should draw herself. But JH says she draws herself every day —- but then she realizes what he said and smiles.
Hwi keeps trying to get JH to go home, but she keeps trying to stay. JH goes inside and they both sit for drinks with two gisaengs. The gisaengs tell them that the painting is important so it will take a while to get ready. They pour JH a drink, but Hwi drinks it right away. The gisaengs try to touch JH and take her clothes off of her but JH just tells them to stop and hops up. She runs out and says she has to go to the bathroom. Hwi looks at her leave and then sighs. He then tells the gisaengs to leave, very seriously.
JH runs outside to the bathroom and sees her father! She hides right away, but her father saw her a little bit. He wonders who’s son this is going to a gisaeng house so young. But he just shakes his head and keeps walking. JH peeks around from her hiding spot and thinks she always runs into family members when she changes her clothes!
We find out that the father meets with the uncle in one of the rooms at the gisaeng house. The uncle is trying his hardest to get JH’s father, Seong Uk on his side. Does SU still believe that the oldest should (shouldn’t?) become king? The scholar says he only challenged the King at that time because he wanted their country to be stable. But the Kings mind was set and you had to step down anyway. Don’t dream about the King, it is not your job as an uncle to put the next King in place. It is all between the King’s family and the nobles.
Uncle laughs, he thinks SU is so stubborn, so what can he say. But he just called him there today to enjoy drinks. The uncle continues to laugh but SU realizes that more is going on.
PAINTING
Hwi knows that the painting is a fake, the paper isn’t used in Joseon, the paint strokes aren’t the same, and the view is different in Joseon. He tells the gisaeng to not think about getting the princes paintings anymore. He gets up to leave but the gisaeng says she wants to play him a song first. Hwi doesn’t want to hear it but JH wants to listen to it so the Gisaeng starts to play a song for the young pretty master. She starts to play it and the more she plays it the more JH looks like she is about to cry, but she also tries to hold it in. Hwi notices.
MAID
Back at the house, JH’s maid is pretending to clean as she looks outside for JH’s return. The brother walks up to her and wants to know what is going on this time…did Ja-hyun go out again? The maid quickly says no, but the brother ain’t no fool and says he will check. The maid pulls him, please don’t check! She did go out! But don’t tell anyone! The brother holds her hands and tells her that he will do this for his poor sister. (But he says it so playfully). It looks like the brother really likes the maid and will do anything for her.
Meanwhile, JH is being carried back to her place on Hwi’s back. She is stupid drunk. The maid grabs JH from his back and tells her she will be in so much trouble if her mother knows about this! You are wearing men’s clothing and now you are drunk! If I die it is all my fault!
But then they run into the mother!
The maid turns JH around and the brother says it is his friend. They were having a drink and he got too drunk. The mother says to put him in the guest room and don’t do things like this. He says, yes! And they pull JH to the guest room right away. As they start to compose themselves out of sight of the mom, the brother tells the maid that she owes him one and the maid looks like the brother is the last person she wants to owe anything to.
GISAENG AND PRINCE JIN YANG
The gisaeng tells the Prince that Hwi brought a girl dressed like a man to the gisaeng house. She thinks he likes kinky things and perhaps he doesn’t like women so she can’t seduce him.
Then we cut to JH finally waking up, but she is still wearing all the men clothing. The maid throws a cold towel on her face which wakes her right up. She fills her in on what happened last night, the master had to give her a piggy-back ride home! JH is so embarrassed by that and buries her face in the bed.
LEE KANG AND UNCLE
The prince tells one of his guards to give a secret letter to one of the chiefs of another country (Jurchen). Perhaps they are trying to start a war? The guard takes off with the letter and we see him riding through the forest.
Meanwhile, Hwi’s servant tells him that he is worried about him. When will he reveal his name? Does she know that he is the prince? How long will he fake this? Hwi says he will tell her the truth, he will tell her his name and be truthful about…
But he doesn’t tell him the rest.
At the same time, JH leaves the house to meet Hwi. She wants to see how far she can go and what future she will have. The maid tells her that she is already a noble, how much further can she go? She should just marry another noble and live happily. JH knows all these things, but she wants more. She thinks Hwi is the only person who knows what she wants to do. He drew her flowers and sent her the dye and they drew horses together. She is going to meet Hwi. She gets in the carriage and heads off.
But then we find out that she isn’t going to meet Hwi. The other brother sent the carrier for her and we only know this because the maid ran into Hwi’s servant and told him JH had already left in a carrier. Everyone starts running around as they look for her. They find out that she is going on a ship to meet someone.
JH happily rides on a little boat and gets on a ship. But she is startled to see Prince JY there. She didn’t know he would be there and turns like she wants to hop off the boat. He asks her if she is going to swim away? The boat already left and the boat won’t leave without his word. She can leave once they are finished. JH doesn’t want to listen to him. But he tells her to sit, he has a nice meal prepared for her, if she doesn’t want alcohol, then he can give her tea. But JH is just annoyed, she wants to know what he wants.
At the same time, Hwi is running around looking for his brother.
On the boat, JY tells JH that his marriage is coming up, but he thinks of another woman more than his bride. JH tells him that the bride is her friend and he is too rude. JY tells her that he can soften next to her, he was the abandoned son who grew up outside the palace. He had no one around him and his parents were king and queen to him. But his uncle was more like his father and wants to make him just like him. He has two people in front of him who all want either something from him or to flatten him, but she is different. They argue, JH tells him that he is ruder than any other man, he should take the ship to the coast because she wants to go back.
He tells her that the ship won’t leave without his order. Can she swim? Does she hate him that much? Does she really want to be against his order that much?
But just then Hwi yells for JH. He yells, “My Lady!” as he comes up on a small boat. But JY tells Hwi that she doesn’t want to let her go and grabs her by the arm. JH wrestles her arm away and jumps into the water. She sinks to the bottom with her arm in the air (Joseon Dynasty ladies shouldn’t know how to swim because they never do any of those things).
Fade Out
Drama Milk contains ads and affiliate links that keep the lights on over here. The ads use cookies to aid in your viewing experience. If you like what you see then consider whitelisting us from your adblocking software so we can keep doing what we do!
Thanks in advance for the recap!
You’re welcome Stuffed! Also, I love your user name 🙂 I hope you liked this episode!
Thanks for the live recap! OMO and she just jump into the water. It totally shows who she is leaning towards. And I hope she isn’t disappointed when Hwi reveals who he is. By then she will be a tad deeper in her feelings to still forgive him as he doesn’t have ill intentions. Can’t wait until next wknd.
I know! She just jumps right into the water! In the preview it looks like she will find out Hwi is the Prince in the next episode and she will be kind of annoyed because she is caught inbetween two brother.
Hold up, tomorrow isn’t Sunday? Ahhhhhhh, I thought today was Saturday! My days are running together. Aw, man…one more week to wait. I really love this story line so far, just a simple love story without too much other stuff going on besides the palace machinations that are always going on (but they don’t bother me at all in this drama since it is written in the premise).
Oh no, is there no recap for episode 5?
P/s: thanks for the recaps, been reading since Hwayugi!
Posted it yesterday! It was pretty late since we recap Misty at the same time. But it will be live-live today 🙂