Everyone is back in the castle and, no matter how big it is, that place is way too small for all those egos. Nam Jeon is salivating to be the right hand of soon to be King Sung Kye. Bang Wan thinks Nam Jeon doesn’t deserve to lick his fathers shoes and, in fact, Hwi’s father should be the right hand. But Sung Kye thinks Bang Wan shouldn’t talk out of turn and kind of wants to put some discipline in the hot headed prince. From history we know that that might not have gone too well.
Outside the palace, Hwi found out that his sister is alive and well and living with his enemy Nam Jeon as his adopted daughter. Nam Jeon threatened to either have her happily married off to a noble or kill her depending on whether Hwi will be his life long lap dog. His first task is to kill Bang-won. Now, we know from the opening episode that Hwi is Bang Won’s right hand man, so I am pretty intrigued to see how we get there.
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Watch on: Netflix
Shorthand Character Chart: My Country Character Chart
How we do this: We update the post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos which we have fantasies of fixing once the episode finishes airing. Also, there might be lovely updates at the bottom, so check back in!
Recap Countdown: this was a quickcap….check Twitter for updates!
KOREAN DRAMA MY COUNTRY EPISODE 5 RECAP
——-dramamilk.com——-
#1
Bang Won comes riding into the Palace of Seoul. He puts up a while fan and is let in right away. His people stay behind.
Bang Won stands outside the Kings room waiting to be let in. But he is not let in. He waits patiently but the eunuch tells him that he asked several times and he will not let him in.
Cut to a little prince reciting his studies to his father Sungkye. The Eunuch comes and asks if they can let Bang Wan in? It has been 2 hours. His Queen sits to his side.
The King tells the Eunuch that he is letting him stand there on purpose so people will know what I really think.
Outside, bang Wan yells that Prince Bang Wan is sending you my greeting! I should see you but the little princes study time is longer so I will greet you from outside, please understand me! I just worry that something has happened to you.
The King comes out looking upset. Bang Won quiets himself and stands waiting. The King tells him that he understands how much he cares about him so please leave now. Bang Wan heard that the King stopped people from talking about the next grand Prince.
Sung Kye tells Bang Wan that he does everything the opposite of what he says. So why don’t you just come break into the door? Just do it. He motions to the door. Bang Won comes and kneels and says that it is custom for the first son to be the Grand Prince (the next King) but this prince is only 8 of 8 and not the direct lineage. Why do you favor him? I heard that the Queen asked you to put this boy as the grand prince. How can you make this important decision during this important moment at the beginning of the country with pillow talk?
The King tells him to be quiet. The barking dog gets skinny and the quiet dog gets fat. Right now you look very skinny. The King goes back inside and looks at his little prince and Queen. he kneels in front of his little prince and asks if Bang Wan made him scared?
The Queen says that The King might be the one that is scared of him, not the son. The King says that he survived among 10,000 enemies, but you are saying that I am scared of my son? She says that you can kill 10,000 enemies, but you cannot kill your son. The more wrinkles you get, the less brave you become, like you are now.
The King thinks about this and grows more and more upset.
Bang-wan walks out and is confronted by Sunho, he asks if this is a coincidence or if it is on purpose? Sunho says he is there for him. So they start to walk around the grounds. Sunho tells Bangwon to wear proper clothing around the palace, otherwise you can get impeached. Bang Wan laughs to himself and says that he heard that there is a sword among all the pens in the law ministry, that is you.
Sunho takes that as a compliment. Bang Won says he is making fun of him. Being born of the 2nd wife is always a problem. Bang-seok is also a second wife born and Jung Do Jun is also second wife born, you are worse as a slave born so you think that the country changed and you are in your prime. that is why you think a 6th grade can stop the Prince?
Sunho says that the world alraedy changed. Bang Won says that he is going to stop all those second borns from being government officers. Whoever has a position, I will drag them down. Remember, the country changed, but not the world.
Sunho asks, when you come to your palace, can you get down from your horse? BangWon says no, so Sunho tells him you will lost your hourse then.
Bang Won smiles but when he walks around the corner he sees that his horse is dead. Sunho tells him that he killed it instead of him. The world has changed, now you are a servant of the country. Bang Won chuckles and says that his father would have killed the guard, not the horse. But this time, what I say is a compliment.
#2
HWI
At home, Hwi looks at the secret letter. Then the camera cuts Seo Seol who is looking at the letter. She folds it up and tells Hwi that she has one condition, Hee-jae should not know that the letter went to you. Keep distance from Hee-jae, when Hee-jae is here everything is in danger, so don’t be friends or lovers, nothing. Can you promise me that?
He says that he promises it. So she gives him the letter.
He goes home and opens the letter and puts it together with the letter he has. It is the other half of the letter. Then he goes to a secret room that looks like Joseon’s version of a CSI room and looks at everyones drawings on the wall with notes up and a huge map of the city as well. Hwi looks at all the faces while back lit by candles.
There is a general jang who is the right arm of Bang Won. He kills men and abuses women as a habit.
Hwi looks at him doing this in the market and tells Sunho that he will kill this general and get noticed by Bang Won. Sunho can use his mouth to get noticed by the King. he is the stepping stone so they can move up quickly.
GAMBLING
The bad general is gambling at a gambling hole. he is in a private room. Outside there are a lot of other people gambling and drinking. One of the women wants to leave so she can go pee. Then someone throws a bag of money at her for him to tell her what is going on.
The person who threw the money is Moon-bok. Moon-bok then tells Hwi all that he found out about the general with his gambling habits and all those things. Moon is kind of hesitant to help Hwi attack the gambling palce, but ends up helping him break in.
They knock down the door and tell everyone inside that they are going to take all the money. A fight breaks out.
The private game continues as they think it is just drunk people fighting. But one of the guards thinks that the government might come. But the general says that they cannot do anything to him. Dno’t you know who I am?
Chido is one of the gamblers and says that gambling is super dangerous, you are the kind of guy that wont’ leave even if the place is on fire. They start to fight in the secret room.
Chido is able to take them out pretty easily. They tie the general to a post and leave all the silver there.
The red warrior, who is called Hwang Sung-rok, comes and kills the general.
The team goes off and celebrates with all the money they got from the gambling ring (they took all the big money). Moon thinks they should do this all the time. They all eat happily.
HEE JAE
Hee-jae sits in a carrier as she is carried around the city. She looks out the window at the people and remembers that she read Hwi’s name from the list of the dead that was posted in the city.
#3
A song plays as Hee-jae starts to think about Hwi and Hwi starts to think about Hee-jae. She puts out a wish flower lantern that Hwi picks up. It says, please be happy over there, I won’t forget you. He looks across he pond and sees Hee-jae there. She does not see him.
Hee-jae gets to her location. Sun-ho greets her. She tells him that she did not ask him to wait for her. She does not care if he comes out or not.
Hee-jae and Sunho go inside where the Queen tells them that the King will announce a grand prince soon. If her son is it then there will be a lot of opposition.
Sunho tells her that there might be a lot of blood drawn, but it will not be there blood. Hee-jae says that she has an inconvenient truth, the King won’t be a former King and he does not want weak Kings. The younger the Grand prince is, the longer the King will be King. if your son becomes the grand Prince, that is because he is the youngest.
The King is not the only one that wants the youngest to be the grand prince. She looks at Nam Jeon and tells the Queen to be aware of the kind people next to her.
Nam Jeon tells Hee-jae that he heard people call her the skirted minister. She tells him that she heard people call him the King with a hat (not a crown). he tells her that she is the same. She tells him that he is the same. Jeon tells her that bang Wan already showed his teeth, he will be shredded soon. We need to start now. We need to kill all his brothers and kill Bang Wan, this is the war were everyone on one side should die. But you don’t know those things.
#4
When they are alone, the Queen tells Hee-jae that she thinks she has a grudge with Nam Jeon. Hee-jae says that she just wanted to be careful with him. They start to talk about trade with China, with that money she thinks she can stop Bang Wan. Even though his sword is sharp, if they know about it in advance then they can prevent it.
Hee-jae leaves and is met by Sun-ho. He tells her to keep it in mind that one side should all die, that is how the war ends. Money is more dangerous than swords. Hee-jae tells him that is why she needs money. She does not want to lose anyone anymore. She knows that Sunho’s father made Hwi like that, but she does not believe that Sunho is that bad. Do not worry about me and do what you think is important.
She says that she heard some of the army fugitives came back alive. Perhaps? But Sunho says that no one crossed the river alive. he leaves.
Sunho then walks to an interrogation room. This is the general guy that got captured (not killed). He asks Sunho if he knows who he is! Sunho lists everything about this guy, even how many dogs he has and how many puppies they just gave birth to. The general guy tells Sunho that he is a low class person that he will kill soon.
Sung-rok punches him. Sunho tells the general about all his pilaging and raping of the low class people in the town. How can you do that to them with no repercussions, yet gambling is the biggest crime? Sunho tells him that he knows that the three princes follows him as an uncle, including Bang Won. You need to fill this white paper witht he princes weaknesses, leave no empty spots, then you can live.
Cut to Sunho looking at the pages that the man filled. Sunho says that he will be prosecuted due to the gambling law. And Bangwon will kill him if he knows that this letter exists. SR says that he did not know that these thug officials that open the country will draw this much blood. Sunho says that they are all the same, next they need to leave a mark of blood or cut it away.
GAMBLING PLACE
The owner of the gambling place comes strutting in with all his people and asks who did this? One of his men says that Hwi did it. He’s a thug now.
Meanwhile, Hwi is watching his sister and waiting for her to come out of the house. She gets to leave once a month to walk around. So she comes out and walks around with a butler. Hwi watches and sees a robber snatch away Yeon’s money without her noticing. He sighs.
Yeon notices that her money is gone and runs off to look for it. Hwi punches the bag guy and gets the money pouch, but wonders how he can give it to her. he decides to just go up to her and give it to her.
He tries to leave right away, but then comes back and tells her that she needs to be careful and know that the robber took this for you, it makes me so mad. How can you live in this difficult world, tsk. She says that he knows her right? I saw you before in the masters guest room.
He says, oh, yeah, you remember that? She says that she remembers everything that she sees. Then she buys male shoes and says that she is going to give it to her brother.
Hwi sighs and then turns to leave, but he sees thugs coming and knows that they are coming for him so he tells her to leave and uses her name. She wonders how he can know her name.
Hwi walks up to the gambling man and hugs him as if he knows him. But he tells him that there are a lot of soldiers around here due to what happened yesterday. They walk off together.
Yeon watches as well and in the near distance we see that the butler is watching also.
Hwi walks to a restaurant where he sits and tells them that he did not want to draw blood in front of the young lady just in case her epilepsy came back. The gambler wants to fight though, so Hwi’s team makes themselves know with arrows and swords shot and thrown all around.
Hwi sits confidently and talks to the gambler about what might be enough money? Beom walks over with a lot of leather and fur that looks like it might be worth a lot. Hwi then tells them that they should live happily together. They can share the city half and half. The man says that he will consider it and leaves.
But the gambling boss is not ready to just not do anything and tells one of his people that he will make sashimi from them.
#5
Back at Jeon’s place, the butler tells Nam Jeon something and then hurries off. Sunho comes up to him right at that moment and gives him all that he found out. His father tells him that he is useless if he does not get Bang Won. The dog that can run well, bark well, and bite well thinks of himself as a wolf. If you don’t control it, he will start to hunt on his own. Eventually, he will die of hunger or get killed by a tiger or will come back and bite the owner. Do you think we can trust this dog?
Sunho says that this will not happen to hwi. You do not understand hwi. Jeon tells him that Hwi met Yeon on the street. If Hwi can’t do this, they you should do it. if you cant do it then I will cut Yeon.
Yeon watches all of this, though she might not have heard what was said. She could have heard it though.
That night, Sunho and Hwi meet. Sunho says that Yeon was in danger in the market. A robber took her money and a thug almost harmed her. You need to be more careful with her. Sunho says that their butler saw him and told his father, so you are putting her in more danger, not me.
Yeon knocks on the door then and comes in with tea. Hwi hides. they talk about how Jeon was a little angry earlier, are you okay/ Yeon says she is fine and she knows that he smiled because no matter the emotion, he always smiles. She tells him that he can cry in front of her. She tells him not to say he is crying too much later.
She gets up to leave but says that someon said her name earlier, it was strange to be called a name outside the house. Sunho changes the subject and says that they should go to the market tomorrow. She tells him that he has to promise and then leaves.
Hwi comes back out, Sunho tells him that he will take Yeon to the market tomorrow. You need to make sure that she does not think of you at all.
BANG WON
The King calls for bang Won so they both go on a walk. he tells her to remember to smile and tells him that one of his brothers drew blood because he drank too much. bang Wan says that he never heard about that.
The King says that everyone knows about it, you just don’t know about it. And it is from drinking too much, that is too shameful to talk about. His second son has 14 sons outside of his wife. They will fight so much. The third son has 15 sons. And he is so weak. The 4th son, Bang-Gan is just a thug. So, who should be the next King? The drunk or the thug or you? Tell me. I will follow what you wish. Don’t you trust me? We have so many years, how can a King say otherwise.
The Queen and the little prince walk up at this point. But they are still a ways away in the courtyard. The King tells the palce recorder to write down in the records that he will consider who Bang Won thinks the next King should be.
He goes up to bang Won and asks him who he thinks the next King should be. Everyone waits for Bang Won’s answer.
Bang Wons ays that even though the little prince is young, he is smart and everyone knows how great he is. So appoint him. Are you happy now? The King smiles and asys yes, of course, this is a beautiful brothership.
But everyone else looks worried.
Bang Won goes outside and tells his guard that not that many people know a bout his first brothers sickness. he quieted everyones mouth except one, General jang.
#6
In the city, Sunho talks to Hee-jae and her gisaneg friend. But then the governor walks by that Sunho tortured. The man asks who those girls are. They say that Hee-jae is the righth hand to the Queen, she is not easily touched. So the man asks who the other one is.
Hee-jae and Hwa-wol continue talking pleasantly. Hwa-wol tells Hee-jae to come by and see Seo Seol. Her condition is getting worse. And, if we have contact with Hwi, we will let you know.
Hwi goes back to his army friends and jokes with them a bit about mirrors and all that. Hwi decides to dress up walk around the market, so they ask if he is going on a date, he says he will just walk around and see her.
HOME
Sunho and Yeon meet and joke for a moment about his new shoes that he found and how he hopes a veyr pretty woman put them there for him. Then they head out to the market.
MARKET
In the market, Hwi watches Yeon once again. She goes up to him and asks him how he is doing. Sunho pretends like he does not know Hwi and ask who he is, so the sister tells him that he is someone that works for the master.
Sunho takes a deep beath and says that Hwi is a thug all covered in blood, he just barks and if something goes wrong then he tries to kill them. How do you know Yeon’s name? Will you try to take money from her. Do you think you can hide if you kidnap her? You will not even last one day.
Hwi says that is him and his father who use people. Yeon steps in and says that her brother does not deserve to be called a dog by someone like you. Lets go brother. She and Sunho start to walk away. Yeon is left in the street crying.
The butler sees all this again.
HOME
Sunho practices bow and arrow when his father comes up to tell him that he did a good job. Sunho tells him that he learned this from him. Sunho ells him that he learned it from him. They start to argue over his mother that killed herself and his brother that died. Nam Jeon says that he did not ask her to do it! You are the one that made her do it!
But Sunho says that the son and mother relationship was cut, that is why she did that.
#7
GISAENG HOUSE
The bad guy goes to the gisaneg house and tells Hwa Wol that she is so pretty.
Hee-jae shows up at the gisaeng house to a ruckus of commotion. Everyone is running out.
Hwa Wol walks out as well with a bloody head. The general hit her over the head with it. The general starts to laugh when he sees Hee-jae and calls her the skirt minister. She calls him a drunken dog so he kicks her to the ground.
Hee-jae tells their guard to kill him. But he won’t. So she pulls the sword herself and holds it up to the man. But then Seo Seol comes out and slaps Hee-jae. She tells her, how dare you, you are nothing.
Then she goes to the general and apologizes for not teaching them well. Please do not be angry. Please forgive us. He walks up to Hee-jae and tells her that Seo Seol saved her life. Then he leaves. Seo seol tells her people to clal the doctor, hurry.
Hee-jae kneels with he friend and holds her. Later on, we see the friend getting medical care. As her friend sleeps, Hee-jae sits with her all night until the sun goes up.
In the morning, Hee-jae talks to Seo Seol outside. Seo Seol asks if she is okay? Hee-jae says that she should have ignored him if she could not kill him. I serve the Queen so I thought I was something, but now I realize that weak righteousness without power is weak.
Seo Seol tells her that at least she is not suppressed by the sword. She is happy that she can undergo hardship. When the truth is cut by a sword, then it becomes a rumor. I think that you will last and I am relieved that you will last. I worry also.
She starts to breath hard and then walks off.
PALACE
Jang Hyuk happily reads at his house and asks if anyone is outside? He tells them that he needs to kill a dog.
Cut to Cheon Ga taking money to the gambling house owner about this. he tells him that there needs to be no trace of this person even if they die. The gambler says that he knows one guy that meets his criteria.
Scene change to Hwii looking at a fire. His friends look at him. But then the gambling house owner comes up and asks if he would like to catch a dog with him, it is the country’s dog. Don’t you want to wear an officers uniform? hwi tells him that he does not care.
The gambler says that he will cut gambling half and half with him, so Hwi asks what he wants him to do. The gambler says to follow them. Hwi follows.
In the street, we see the dog general riding around in his carrier. He gets word that the Prince wants to see him. He asks if it is Bang won? But then he corrects it to Bang-won’s official title name.
At the same time, Sunho gets updated that the thugs are maing a move and so is hwi. Sunho tells SR to keep following him. SR says that he will kill him sometime int he future. Sunho tells him that he hopes he is alive then.
Hee-jae also sees the general walking around, they head into the gisaeng house. She asks one of the gisanegs why they let him in again. She says that they had no choice.
Back with the thugs, the thugs start to get ready for their plan. They put on all their bandit stuff.
Sunho goes to the King with the informants letter. It says that Bang Won has more than 100 private soldiers. he could have more than 1000. Sunho says that he did not tell his father this, which is why this was not in his fathers report. The King is the only one who knows about this.
The general sits at the table waiting for Bang Won, but Bang Won does not show up. The bandits come charging in and kill a ton of guards as they do. Hwi makes it all the way to the general who stays sitting and sipping his drink.
With Sunho, the king asks what he should do with the general? Sunho says that the general will die tonight.
Cut to Hwi running the general through. He has on a mask so the general pulls it off of him as he dies. hwi pulls the sword out of his body and the general falls. Hee-jae looks on and sees that this person is Hwi. Blood drips all over Hwi’s face as he looks over at Hee-jae.
She is shocked to see him and stops him from leaving. They quietly share a moment. he slowly looks over at her and she looks at him with teary eyes. A tear drop falls as she looks at Hwi and he looks at her.
Fade Out
COMMENTS
Okay, I was thrown off at the beginning because it feels like a lot of time passed from the last episode. Enough time for the King and Queen to be coronated and a new country named and everyone settled in their positions and Hwi’s friends to show up and live with him and for Hwi and Sunho’s relationship to kind of be on the mend a little bit.
PREVIEW
HJ – You knew about it? You knew everything? How can you…
SH – It was Hwi’s choice. hwi ignored you, not me.
HJ – You are just like your father. A carbon copy.
NJ – If you kill the one above you, then they will have fear, so give them fear not anger
SH – if I kill Bang Won, then where will you be?
HJ – I should have killed you, prince we will have another chance right?
SH – The world you live in, I can go there only after I die
HJ – I will go to the world you live in
At the moment, My Country is my favorite show from all the dramas I watch (and I watch a lot of them). I think you missed the subs at the beginning of the episode that say that we are in 1392 which is the first year of King Taejo’s reign. The sub appears as we see Bang-Won waiting waiting before his father the king’s quarters.
The episode 4 was set around 1389 (I think General Lee Seong-Gye was not yet king at the end of episode 4, hence the year 1389) which means at most 3 years have past since the end of episode 4 ! So of course, things have changed.
As for the “mending” friendship, I wouldn’t call it that. To me, it just look like they’ve settled in that master/slave relationship that has been established in episode 4. Hwi is only obeying him to save Yeon.
I believe Sun-Ho have conflicted feelings towards Hwi because he feels guilty for everything he’s done to him. I think he wants to protect him but at the same time, he is ambitious and he loves Hee-Jae who loves Hwi still. Because of that, he also want Hwi to disappear or hurt him. The market scene with Yeon is pretty revealing : you know he is doing it to help Hwi protect his sister but at the same time, he seemed to enjoy dissing Hwi and breaking his heart.
And that’s why I love this drama, the intricate relationship between the characters, the revenge, the suspens, it got me completely hooked.
Author
Ah, I might have missed those captions at the beginning!