[Spoiler alert: If you have not seen Mr. Sunshine, the article below contains spoilers. Please stop reading now if you do not want the details to the episodes.]
The theme for episode 13 and 14 is family. We have seen the traditional families through Go, Kim, and Eugene. But this episode also asks an important question: what is a family?
Go Family
We had other scenes with Go family’s eldest daughter-in-law, mother to Go Ae-soon. We see her loneliness and the weight of other’s criticism. There is a saying in Korea that if the woman’s character or personality is too strong, it will lead to her husband’s early death. This is the shame and criticism Madame Jo must endure even from her relatives.
In one of the earlier episodes, the daughters-in-law of the family, likely Lord Go’s nieces-in-laws, wonders why Lord Go doesn’t take an adoptive son from the family. These women, of course, are more interested in Lord Go’s assets than actually caring about the welfare of Madame Jo’s family. Her shame is not giving birth to a son to carry on the family name.
This brings us to the question: are they not a family without a male heir? It seems that the society see it that way. Without a male heir, the family name cannot be carried on to the next generation. Hence, a house full of Go women do not make a family.
Go Ae-soon comes home after spending the day out playing, probably at the Glory Hotel. She goes to the baby being held by one of the servants and announce that mom is home. This doesn’t sit well with the actual mother of the child, Lee Deok-mun’s second wife. Ae-soon’s husband is abusive towards her because he finds her useless, especially because she has failed to produce a son – her only job.
We see a different type of family than Westerners are used. In Joseon, it was common for husbands to take additional wives, concubines, as long as they could afford them. Since Ae-soon failed to produce a child, the second wife has gain the upper hand over the first wife. Ae-soon tries to be a part of her family, but she is constantly rejected.
Lord Go goes to visit Hui-seong at the Glory Hotel. He tells Hui-seong that the reason why he chose Hui-seong as Ae-shin’s husband was because he understood Hui-seong’s desire to escape his grandfather and father’s influence. Lord Go also knows that Ae-shin is the one trying to break the engagement, but he asks Hui-seong to take care of Ae-shin anyway. He doesn’t have much time left. Lord Go wants to ensure that Ae0shin has a family after he is gone.
Ae-shin’s identity is about to come to light. During Eugene’s investigation, he finds a picture of four men and the name of one of the men is Ae-shin’s father. There is a bit of foreshadowing of the danger Ae-shin could face when people – Lee Wan-ik – find out about her parent’s role, Righteous Army member. Dong-mae tells Ae-shin that he won’t do anything. If she is discovered by someone else, he will rip their eyeballs. This will lead Ae-shin to get her question about her family, who were her parents?
Eugene’s Family
From the beginning of the series, the driver for Eugene was his family. He lost his parents as a young child and the only other person he counts as his family has been murdered. When he finds out that Joseon has decided to close the case and let Joseph take the fall, Eugene is outraged.
What will Eugene do to save his family’s honor?
We are supposed to feel sympathetic to the Emperor and Minister Lee Jeong-mun. The Emperor forces himself to stay awake and he even has ordered his favorite coffee to be send less frequently. He doesn’t know who is on Japan’s payroll and he’s suspicious that they may put something in his food and drinks – poison.
Even with this helpless, it is hard for us to not feel the rage Eugene feels towards Joseon when we see that their powerlessness has framed an innocent man, whose only fault was trying to help Joseon.
This pinch point is elevated with the letter from Joseph.
“Brushing your hair and putting medicine on your wound was all I could barely do as I prayed to God. Please give this foreign child freshly baked bread and clean water. Please keep this foreign child out of the cold and grant him the warm sun. I should erase the word ‘barely’. The medicine was quite expensive for a poor missionary. I miss you, Eugene. I recently learned to make takju. I plan to bring some when I come to see you. I’ll try not to drink it all before I reach Hanseong. Dear great and noble one. My son. Wherever you are, I will pray for you. Even on the nights when I don’t pray, I hope that God is always with you. From Joseph.”
Eugene can’t let this slide. He will recover Joseph’s good name even if it kills him because it’s the only thing he can do to save his family. Something he wasn’t able to do as a child.
Detour
I want to take a slight detour from the theme of family and talk about Lee Wan-ik’s scheme.
Lee Wan-ik has pretty much every department in Joseon’s government in his pocket. Postmaster Yoon bring Lee Wan-ik the letter Lord Go wrote.
“Japan is trying to take Joseon’s goods using their currency. Taking out goods equals taking from our people and that will threaten our sovereignty. As a nobleman of this country, how can we keep silent in this dreadful circumstance? At the meeting on the last day on this month, I hope to gather our thoughts. Those of you who are living in quiet in your homes come to Hanseong and help me.”
– Songbaek Go Sa-hong
Lee Wan-ik knows that if Lord Go Sang-ho makes a move, it will move the other scholars around Joseon that have remained quiet. This is an obstacle that Lee Wan-ik had not calculated. He orders all the letters to be gathered and burn. Lee Wan-ik now has a new enemy to take down.
In some ways, Lord Go’s actions are too late. We wonder why has has not done anything sooner – why haven’t the other scholars done anything to this point?
Even ten years ago, Lord Go admitted to Ae-shin that Joseon was falling apart. But what has he done except provide funds to the Righteous Army? Why hasn’t he done anything else until now?
Short answer: he wasn’t ready to die. He needed to make sure that his family was taken care of before he took this step.
Now that Lord Go has decided to fight, Lee Wan-ik also needs to make plans to take Lord Go down. Lee Wan-ik orders Joseph’s murder and frame Dong-mae. Why? To frame Lord Go as the person behind Joseph’s murder. Lee Wan-ik more or less threatens the Emperor and says he will cover all this up as Joseph’s greed.
So, what is this letter that they are claiming is fake?
“I’m the king of the Korean Empire and I ask if America, our ally, will be willing to offer us any economic respite or refuge. I ask through John Goodlaw, the American minister in China. I send my earnest request through one of your own people. I sincerely hope it finds you.”
Lee Wan-ik visits the Emperor and tells him that if the letter happens to be real, it will ruin the relationship with Japan and even Minister Allen will feel betrayed, ruining the relationship with the American as well. So, the letter must be fake. The Emperor tells Lee Wan-ik to take care of the matter as he sees fit.
Family is just as important as one’s identity as a Korean. Our characters are fight for both. We know that there are great darkness times ahead for our characters and Joseon, but we still root for them to prevail.
That’s all for today. Please join me next time for episodes 15 and 16.