The Blade and Petal Episode 4 Summary

General Yeon comes home to his empty gloomy house and Choong spends the night in prison. The King’s decision is set, General Yeon’s son will be beheaded tomorrow in the Pyongyang City square for public to see. Moo Young struggles with the fact that the man she fell in love with is actually used her feelings to get his way to the palace just so he can be close with his father, not for her. She feels like she has been betrayed so she chooses to go visit him in prison demands for explanation.

In the prison Moo Young listens as Choong tells the  truth, but not before she reminds him first, “Do not expect forgiveness or kindness. I will not forgive you. I will not show any kindness to you. Do not expect that your head may be spared or that you may not be killed. Your head will be cut off, and you will die.”

Realizing that this might be his last time to explain why he lied to the princess, Choong decides to be completely honest with her. He tells her he lives only to see his father after he and his mother were abandoned just because they’re slaves. Despite he tried so many times to see the General, his comings were always rejected so he grabbed the only chance he can to meet him by taking the assassin job. Choong admits he’s so devastated he didn’t have any conscience whether what he did was right or wrong.

Choong tells her although he was still rejected by his dad, his decision to be a palace guard is a way to make his own fate. He wants to be someone success and worth to acknowledge even without a father to support along the way. Bitterly Choong chuckles, “Is fate really something you can’t escape from?” He tried to get away from his fate as General Yeon’s illegitimate son, yet just for the same reason he’s gonna be executed.

Moo Young asks him if he isn’t afraid of death, but he answers that now he’ll be dying as his father’s son then he has no regrets. The thing that bothers him the most is how everything he did ends up hurting the feeling of a person who trusts and supports him, Moo Young. He never wants to hurt her, but in the end he hurts her so much it’s unforgiveable.

All the members of the secret group serving the king found out about Choong’s family ties, and Shi-woo pities the princess for falling to such a complicated man. But what worries them more is how Choong’s upcoming execution can be a reason for General Yeon to plan something big against the King.

Jang visits General Yeon and they openly discuss about the situation with Choong. General Yeon throws the simple truth: “If he were a spy, he wouldn’t have tried to save the lives of the princess and the prince.” The General says though Choong thinks he’s behind the assassination attempt but Choong keeps silent about it to protect him. The General admits that he wasn’t responsible for the attempt. General Yeon closes their conversation by offering Jang to come across to his side, as his crown prince candidate.

Jang is mad at first with that offer, but slowly the idea begins to root in him. He asks Choong whether it’s true that Choong saved the prince and princess from an assassination attempt, because if it’s true then he’ll save Choong’s life. Still Choong denies the attempt to keep protecting his father.

No matter how Moo Young seems to give up on Choong, she forgives him and tries to look ways to save him. She discuss her thoughts to Jang, but he sighs telling her that none of them will work. She tells Jang that she feels responsible for Choong’s fatal punishment, how Choong actually had decided to leave Pyongyang but then he stays because she made him to. If she didn’t do that, Choong wouldn’t be facing his death now.

I don’t know if Jang tries his best to avoid Choong’s penalty because what General Yeon offered him, but he tells her the truth—that Choong saved her and her brother from assassination. I think he knows that Moo Young most probably will use this information to plea with the King to let Choong free. Jang is right. Moo Young goes to the King but all she said is useless. King doesn’t want to change his decision because he wants to use this opportunity as a warning to anyone who tries to oppose him.

Devastated and helpless, Moo Young visits Choong again in the prison. However she feels so lost she can’t face him so she turns around and about to leave, just in time that Choong sees her. Feeling his eyes staring at her, she turns back and this time she goes to his cell. “I don’t think I can just let you go like this,” she admits. A tear falls from Choong as he replies, “Knowing how you feel is enough for me.”

She sheds her tears, “It’s not enough for me.” She puts her hands to the wooden bars of the cell as she puts all her love and her heart for that man. Choong finally stops controlling himself anymore, he stops holding back. He reaches her hands, accepts her love, and cries for them both. He never wants her to go through this all and gives her such pain.

Moo Young runs home but stumbles midway when a conversation with her brother flashes to her mind. The prince told his sister about a secret passageway in the prison leading to the outside. Few moments later, a man comes to the prison and after a chit chat with one of the guard, he took Choong’s cell key and change it with a fake then releases a butterfly into the prison. The butterfly will  find the secret way while it flies for fresh air. Moo Young is ready outside waiting to spot the butterfly, and when she does she finally finds the hidden passageway.

That night the king talks with the crown prince discussing his problem with General Yeon. The crown prince believes that there’s another road or solution, something his father doesn’t agree. He notes that the prince likes Choong, and the prince simply says that because he finds he can talks well with him. Suddenly the King senses something and asks if his sister sends him to the King to do a favor. The prince becomes anxious, showing that King’s guess is correct. Meanwhile Moo Young finds the way to Choong’s cell.

She waits until the prison guard walks away from the cell, then she throws a dagger into Choong’s cell. And the King now wants to see Moo Young to chat with her, makes the prince frantically tries to stop him. If the King goes to his sister’s room and finds out that she’s gone, it can be fatal for her.

Choong at first wants to take the knife, but when he catches that it’s Moo Young who is ready to save him, he looks shocked. It seems that Choong won’t think twice to save himself if it’s somebody else saving him, but since it’s the princess herself he doesn’t want anything goes wrong for her.

Quickly Moo Young inserts the key she has to the cell, but it won’t open. It seems she gets the wrong key. She keeps trying, trying, and trying, but the lock remains unharmed. While she desperately tries to unlock the door, Choong silently just wants her to give up and leave the dangerous place immediately. Moo Young was frustrated and cries for her failed prison break, nonetheless Choong gives her a deep peaceful look. He knows she did tried her best and how she wants him to be free. He knows she does that all because of love.

Moo Young returns to the palace and surprised to see his father awaits for her. But no matter how she kneels down to beg for Choong’s life, the king is unmoved. The king does the same the same thing when General Yeon seeks an audience with the King, most probably to ask him to free his son. But the King refuses to meet him and conveys his message through Jang.

Before leaving the palace, General Yeon asks Jang to at least being kindly to him by returning Choong’s body in one piece so that he can be given a proper funeral. Then he asks to see his son for the last time. When finally the General meets his son before he dies, this is what he says: “Many people will be watching you die. If you are a Yeon, you will meet your death with dignity.” Choong accepts this acknowledgement in silence, soon after his father leaves he looks up to the sky as if he wants to tell his mother that finally he’s accepted as one of the Yeon’s family.

In the city square a small crowd has gathered, including his friend Jin-gu, not knowing that one of the executed prisoners is Choong. Moo Young rides her own carriage, racing through the town to see Choong alive for the last time. Choong’s face is uncovered from the white hood, somehow his form of execution is changed—to be hung, not beheaded.

When Choong sees Moo Young in the crowd he looks like he’s in an absolute sadness and wanna say, “Ah, why coming here sweetheart? Why putting yourself into such a terrible sight like this? It’ll hurt so much for you later.”

At home General Yeon stares at the same portraits of his ancestors he likes to spend so much time there. But actually when a certain portrait observed from a certain angle, something surprising shown behind the surface of the portrait. It has a second layer portrait which actually is the painting of Choong’s mother. Very intriguing.

Mu-young sobs in terror, sadness and just absolutely helpless while finally Jang gives the order to start hanging Choong. It’s painful to see when the noose immediately tightened around Choong’s neck and he gasps for air. Moo Young steels herself in tears, watching the love of her life dying in front of her.

 

 

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