The Blade And Petal Episode 5 Summary

A flashback shows the night before Choong’s execution that Jang moved him to a different cell which I don’t know why, but probably he has thought that someone might come to save Choong. The conversation he had with General Yeon seems to linger in his head, about how the throne should be his both by his royal blood and by his own merits.

Now the idea seems to have taken root in Jang which makes him does something toward Choong. He secretly pours some mysterious stuff into Choong’s last cup of tea. And there’s more. Jang manages to convince the king to grant General Yeon’s request for his son’s body to be returned in one piece. The request makes the king agrees to Jang’s idea to hang Choong instead of beheading him.

Back to present day, Choong is hung while the princess watches heartbreakingly. But a small wooden stick is jammed into the knot of the noose to stop it tightened—the same stick we saw Jang holding the night after he poured the mysterious powder into Choong’s cup.

Choong finally stops fighting and runs out of breath. His body stops moving and he looks like he’s already dead. A guard checks his pulse – Choong doesn’t look like he’s dead from hanging but his no-pulse tells the executioners that he’s dead. Jang’s whatever poison gave to Choong shows the use of it now. It slows down the pulse in such a way it can make the consumer appears as a dead person.

Moo Young breaks down and falls to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. Her sadness has taken her over she can’t even properly drive her carriage back to the palace. After almost clashing with another carriage she takes off from her carriage then continues on foot with tears streaming down her face. Jang notices her painful sorrow but he says nothing.

Jang returns Choong’s body to his father, who remains stoic and expressionless. He instructs his staff to prepare for the funeral and gives Jang an intriguing stare, a silent recognition of what Jang did. Jang then asks for a private talk with General Yeon in which he says, “Protecting Goguryeo and the royal family is my destiny.” To protect Goguryeo there mustn’t any more conflict  between General Yeon and the king, that’s why Jang decides that he took action by bringing Yeon’s son to him. Alive.

In the chamber where Choong’s body is laid, General Yeon’s guard shocks when he finds out that the dead guy isn’t really dead. When he hears Choong gasps for air, he immediately walks out of the room and report it to the General. He explains all Jang’s actions to prevent Choong’s dead;  the mysterious poison has given to slow down Choong’s pulse, and how something stuck into the noose to stop it tightened choking him.

General Yeon accepts the news calmly, and reminds his guard that no one should know about it. The fake death indeed is planned. To carry it on like it’s real, General Yeon insists to hold a small funeral for his son. He visits him in the chamber that night while Choong receives acupuncture treatment and thinks to himself while he staring at his son, “You’ve come home.” Ok, that’s big, that statement. Do you love or you don’t love your boy General?

Choong wakes up slowly in a hard way just like a man who suppose to be dead comes back to live. He inhales the air painfully and lets a tear roll down while he accepts the fact that he’s alive. When his father leaves the room after checking his health, Choong opens his eyes and another tear shows up. This time is a tear for Moo Young, as Choong remembers how unbearably the princess cried for him.

In her room sad Moo Young wrapped herself in bed, her meal is left uneaten and she still in tears. All she can think is the sight of Choong hanging limp from the noose, and she cries hard all over again. The king visits her, knows very well the daughter he loves very much is brokenhearted now. However, he has to remind her, “You must not forget that you are a daughter of Goguryeo before you are my daughter.”

Moo Young argues the King decision in killing Choong, she can’t accept the idea that the cruel punishment is just an instrument for the king to show his authority over the nobles. That the king scares to no one. Moo Young tries to make her father understand how it’s wounding for her seeing the person she cares about died like that, but the king replies that as royalty she can’t afford to feel sadness or pain.

“Are you saying that a royal must live without any feelings?” she asks. “Has that been your life, Father?” Her father’s facial expression points out how it’s true for him. That’s something Moo Young disagrees and she promises she won’t live like that. The king can’t protest when she declares that she’ll go see Choong for the last time, especially when she says nothing in this world even the king can stop her heart: “This is all I can do for him.”

Finally General Yeon meets Choong and after asking his health condition he utters, “You chose the royal family, but that was not your path. A member of the Yeon family does not go off one’s path.” Choong asks whether it means that he’s a member of the Yeon family now. His father doesn’t answer and instead tells him that he can choose to stay or leave. On the other hand he kinda reminds his son that his ties with the royal family have ended.

Moo Young comes up for the funeral with Jang guards her, both the General and him share these knowing looks while the princess cries her heart out and caresses Choong’s clothes over his empty casket. In the meantime Choong walks his way through his father’s home, and stops midway when he sees Moo Young stands crying to his coffin.

General Yeon and Jang are so worried that Choong might decide to show himself to her. But when she does turn around, Choong hides. And he keeps hiding until the princess walks home, only shows up silently behind watching her leaves. Before she goes home Moo Young speaks to the General, saying how she wishes for no more conflict between him and her dad, “I think that’s what we can do for your lost son. Your son would have agreed with me.”

At the gates, Moo Young tells Jang to go back to the palace first. Still in very deep grief for losing the man she loves, she decides to walks through all different parts of the city village where she has her special memories with Choong. She wants to relive them all.

She doesn’t know that Choong actually follows her, just far enough not to be seen. His father’s words how now his relationship with the royal family has ended remains in Choong’s head, holding him to show himself to her. Moo Young then visits the inn where she and Choong played their word game, and sits there alone thinking, “I will only remember the good memories between us. In my heart, only your happy face will remain.”

Her walk brings her back to the hair accessory stall where they first met and while she’s so deep in thought, Choong passes right behind her to slide a hairpin into her hand before disappearing into the crowd. Moo Young only notices the hairpin in her hand until a few seconds later, and recognizes that it’s the very same hairpin she gifted him on the night of the festival. It’s definitely his, and she jumps at the possibility that he could be alive. Frantically, she starts looking around for him.

Choong goes to the inn she just visited, he sadly remembers the word game she played which is a cute way of her to confess her one-sided love. At that time he pretends like he couldn’t understand to avoid an awkward situation. He’s too care for her to hurt her feelings but he can’t accept them too. He knows his position, he‘s the one who should guard and protect her, in any way.

In General Yeon’s residents what everybody worries happened. The General decides to retaliate. In the mean time the Geumhwadan (the secret group that protects the king) gather its members. They are : Mole-man BOO-CHI, gambler SEOL-YOUNG, femme warrior YOUNG-HAE, and lastly is, Shi-woo. They’re gathered because the king knows that General Yeon will surely planning something for revenge, and their job is to find out his retaliation plan.

The gang leader, Leader So, and gambler Seol-young show up at General Yeon’s resident to cause trouble to distract the guards. After fishing all the guards outside, the rest of the Geumhwadan members are able to sneak into the house. But it’s Shi-woo who slips inside into  General Yeon’s dining room and hides himself in a big potted plant.

That night General Yeon and his supporters plan their moves to start the revolution. It will begin on the day of the ceremony to install the crown prince as successor to the crown. The scene shows how they expect the plan will be executed. They’ve planned it into the exact hour, which for each certain hour one group of men will infiltrate the palace so later they can ambush at the ceremony site. General Yeon and his people found a way to hide swords in flagpoles, ready to fight the king’s army.

They never know that Shi-woo is able to hear all the plan from his hiding place. Even further to how they plan to have another group scaling the northern palace walls to make way for the rebels small army.

Moo Young visits General Yeon again, clutching Choong’s hairpin she says: “I believe your son is alive.” She assures him that she won’t tell anyone that Choong’s still alive. “If he is here, please let me meet him. I beg you.” Nonetheless, General Yeon sticks to his story that his son is really already dead.

Later Dad confronts Son for hinting the princess that he’s alive. Choongs says he at least still doesn’t show himself to her, and General Yeon demands him to cut his ties with Mu-young completely, something Choong totally opposes. “The princess is the most important person I’ve come to know in my life. To sever a person like that from me? I can’t.” He adds that he won’t live like his father, because he’ll protect what’s precious to him.

Again, the General reminds him what it takes to get into the Yeon family, and Choong replies in an absolute grit: “If the only way to become a member of the Yeon family is to abandon someone precious to me, then I will leave the family instead.”

Choong watches Moo Young from a distance, “Though I cannot appear in front of you,” he thinks aloud, “when everything is settled, I will find you.” He hopes that Moo Young stops being in pain anymore because now she knows that he lives.

Moo Young search to confirm that her beloved one is actually still alive brings her back to the inn, then when she’ about to leave she almost misses a new character is written on the wall—it’s the answer to the Hanja word game she asked Choong: “What about the character where the words inside one’s heart are confined by threads?”

He didn’t answer her at that time, but he does now. There’s only one person who would write the character and suits with what she asked earlier. His answer: The Hanja character for Yeon, meaning “heart that loves.”

Now Moo Young knows he’s alive.

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