[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.]
Now that we are past the halfway mark of the series, we see our characters take some serious risks. Our theme for this post is risk. These risks will have rippling affects not only on their lives, but also the lives of those closest to them.
Let’s take a look.
Eugene’s Risk
Eugene catches the Righteous Army assassin. He knows that they will send another because the assassin failed. He also knows that they will send Ae-shin. Here, he takes a great risk, and he proceeds to go to the potter. Eugene’s risk? He will either die or live by Ae-shin. But he is not running away. He will face them head on.
When he comes face-to-face with the potter, Eugene tells him that he only wanted two things. For the potter to live a long life and for Ae-shin not to die. Eugene hands the rifle to the potter and the failed assassin bring Kim Yong-ju, the real culprit behind Joseph’s murder. Eugene tells the potter to deal with Kim Yong-ju as fellow Joseon person.
This interaction shows Eugene’s risk despite the broken trust between him and the potter. There is a level of frustration because all Eugene has ever done was to save and protect the potter and Ae-shin. For all the trouble he has taken to protect them, he got back mistrust. Why? Because they can’t trust a foreigner. By delivering Kim Yong-ju, Eugene’s gamble pays off. He has proven once again that he is a trustworthy person, but Eugene has had enough.
Eugene has figured out too much about the organization. His pursuit for justice and truth has led him down a path of more discovery. This is too great a risk for the Righteous Army because Eugene is an outsider. No matter how much Eugene has help them, they are unwilling to risk it.
The potter realizes Eugene’s sincerely too late. He tells Lee Jeong-mum that they had already gained an ally in Eugene, but they have lost it. Lee Jeong-mum tries to get Eugene back as an ally by threatening him. The potter says that he (Lee Jeong-mun) has no shame. I think the audience agrees as well.
Eugene burns the photo because he knows that it is too risky. The photo contains the name of Song Yeong, Go Sang-wan, Kim Yong-ju, and Jeon Seung-jae in the spring of 1874 in Tokyo. Kim Yong ju has hidden his friends’ real names for thirty years by providing Lee Wan-ik fake names. Why? Lee Wan-ik will hunt and kill anyone related to them. As they have hinted, Song Yeong is pretty high up in the Righteous Army organization and they will do anything to protect his identity. In case you missed it, he was also in the first episode when Daewongun was telling the King what to do.
When Lee Jeong-mun ‘threatens’ Eugene, saying that his friends may live longer with his help, Eugene is asked to take another risk. Eugene may be an American, but he is taking a stand against Japan. This will draw more enemies to Eugene, and he knows it. When faced with prolonging the lives of Ae-shin and the potter, Eugene doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s already risked his life for them. He will continue to do so in the future.
Ae-shin’s Risk
Ae-shin has taken a huge risk when she tells her grandfather that she will not marry. It’s one thing to tell Hui-seong, but another thing to go against the will of your elder. This was unheard of and you can see Lord Go’s confusion and anger. Lord Go tells her that this goes against the code of conduct. Ae-shin is prepared for the repercussions. She tells her grandfather that she will throw away everything and live alone, as an outcast. What she is saying is that she is even willing to forsake her noble status.
In order for the engagement to become annulled, groom’s household must break it. Korean society will not blame the groom, but the bride will live the rest of her life in shame. That was the patriarchal society of Joseon.
Hui-seong, who has intercepted the official marriage letter, sees Ae-shin kneeling out in the courtyard. Hui-seong joins her in her plea/punishment until nightfall. If anyone has done this, you know how painful it is to kneel for hours as they have. Ae-shin doesn’t know what Hui-seong is thinking, but he does let her know that she should trust him to take care of it. He tells her that he will make her a flawed woman, a woman who had her engagement broken.
Ae-shin takes one more risk by telling her grandfather that she loves another man. This is because she has decided to risk everything for Eugene. She knows that they will never be together as husband and wife, but there is only one person she will let into her heart.
When Lord Go finds out the person Ae-shin loves is not only an American, but also a runaway slave boy, he is beyond furious. As you can hear from Lord Go’s speech, he has an extremely low opinion of Americans. And to top it, Eugene was in the lowest class possible. Lord Go is firm on his decision. Ae-shin must live the rest of her life alone, even after his death. Ae-shin knows that this is the best outcome.
Dong-mae’s Risk
Dong-mae, for all his faults, is my favorite character. We expected him to be cruel and heartless, but everything he does, he does to protect Ae-shin. He will get nothing for his risks except knowing that he did everything to protect the woman he loves. There is poetry in that. It also means that he is going against the people he’s supposed to follow – Japan.
After Dong-mae is released from the American Legation, he meets Hayashi. We know this for two reasons: Dong-mae kills his gift, Suzuki and he has planted a seed of doubt to Hayashi about Lee Wan-ik. Dong-mae provokes Lee Wan-ik even further by congratulating him on his new promotion as the Foreign Minister and to be careful with your body. Foreign Ministers tend to end up dead.
Dong-mae takes another huge risk by hopping the wall into Lord Go’s house. He knows that Lee Wan-ik is after Lord Go, so Dong-mae warns him. Dong-mae hands the only remaining letter and tells Lord Go that the rest were burned by Lee Wan-ik’s order. Lord Go more or less lives in his own world. He doesn’t know why an American man and a Japanese man would warn him.
Episode 16 closes as the solar eclipse ominously covers the city in twilight. We can feel troubles ahead.
Join me next time for Episodes 17 and 18 to see what troubles are ahead for our characters.