Joseon Attorney: A Morality – K-drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

Cheongsan Cruelty (Part 2)

Joseon Attorney: A Morality episode 6 starts with Magistrate Son Jong-Seok being awakened by a servant and being informed there is a problem. He rushes out to see Young-Sil on her knees asking to be punished for her crime but on one condition, she wants to be heard first. Lady Hong and Yeon-joo also arrive at the same time and convince Magistrate Son Jong-Seok to accept Young-sil’s condition. Yeon-joo introduces herself as part of Young-sil’s legal team and the magistrate is left with no other choice.

Hansoo visits the village leader who admits he knew everything that happened to Hansoo’s parents but did nothing. He promises to tell Han-soo everything if he leaves quietly. However, for Han-soo that is not an option.

As he leaves, Yeon-joo comes along with Young-sill and other officers. Young-sil asks Han-soo to help her so she can survive. Han-soo gladly accepts the case to challenge the village elder. He and Dong-chi go back and exhume the body of Young-sil’s husband to find out the cause of death. Upon examining the body, they discover a fatal blow to the abdomen during a fight. After all this, Han-soo hires the fastest messenger to deliver a message to Hanyang.

The next morning, officers from Hanyang arrive to arrest the men involved in the fight. Magistrate Son Jong-Seok and the village elder find themselves forced to head the investigation before the Provincial Governor arrives. Magistrate Son Jong-Seok is acting out of formality but wants the village elder to come up with a plan to stop Young-sil from telling her side of the story.

Han-soo and his team are also working hard to come up with the best strategy to save  Young-sil. Han-soo plans to prove that Young-sil acted out of personal retaliation which is accepted by the law, however, it is not going to be easy. They also have to link Young-sil’s husband’s death to Lady Park. Lady Park was the one who started all the rumours about Young-sil but it is hard to prove her rumours instigated the fight.

Han-soo and his team decide to approach the three men involved in the fight and get them to turn against each other. They each take turns talking to the men separately and make it look like one of them already betrayed the others. After a long day, they head to bed but Han-soo and Yeon-joo are unable to sleep. Yeon-joo helps Han-soo take care of his wound and they promise to always be there for each other.

Sadly, back in Hanyang, Ji-sun misses Yeon-joo and wonders about the relationship she has with Han-soo. His thoughts are interrupted when an officer walks in with a letter informing him Park Je-soo’s killer has been apprehended.

The next morning, the three men involved in the fight meet at what looks like a temple and make a blood oath not to betray each other. Dong-chi secretly watches them and feels disheartened. Magistrate Son Jong-Seok collects money from the village elder as a bribe. The village elder also sends his men to watch the road and stop the messenger from Hanyang.  The men take down the messenger and tear up the letter. Luckily, Yoon finds the messenger and recovers the torn message. Han-soo decides to send Yoon to meet the Provincial Governor personally.

Later that night, the village elder plots to hold the case secretly among themselves and kill Young-sil. He and other villagers storm the government office and demand to take Young-sil. By the time, Han-soo realizes their plan, the secret hearing has already begun. To save herself from being hung, Young-sil announces that she is pregnant. However, the villagers still demand that she be executed.

Luckily, Han-soo arrives in time and intervenes. He asks why Young-sil is the only one being punished when there are other involved parties in the crime. The village elder claims that only Young-sill killed someone and Han-soo brings up the three men who also killed Young-sil’s husband. He points out that everything started with Lady Park’s rumours and the other villagers simply continued to add fuel to the fire. He harshly scolds them for spreading the rumours for fun when they knew that Young-sil was not cheating on her husband with other men.

He also scolds the village elder for turning down Young-sil when she asked him to warn Lady Park from defaming her. It is the same thing he did to Han-soo’s family when they were accused and he turned the villagers against the family. He also points out how the village elder has managed to have control over the villagers. In a fit of anger, the village elder reveals Han-soo’s identity. The villagers are surprised to learn that Han-soo is the son of the infamous Officer Kang.

The hearing continues and Han-soo calls upon the three men who killed Young-sil’s husband. The men start betraying each other and fighting, and the hearing turns into a complete mess. Ji-sun arrives and orders the arrest of the villagers and the village elder for the part they played in the death of Young-sil’s husband. As for Young-sil, he insists that she must be killed as per the law. Yeon-joo finds this outrageous and they start to argue. Ji-sun decides to re-investigate the case.

After the hearing, Han-soo tries to explain the situation to Ji-sun. Ji-sun asks him to first apologize for lying to him to get him to come to the village.  Han-soo argues that he didn’t think Ji-sun would have come if he knew the truth. He asks Ji-sun to help him save Young-sil.

Ji-sun has dinner with Magistrate Son Jong-Seok and gives him a poisonous drink made from maple mushrooms. He orders the magistrate to tell him why he never investigated the death of Young-sil’s husband when she begged him to. The magistrate reveals that the village elder always paid him to let him handle matters in the village.

Han-soo asks him about the artefact and he tells him that he got it from Lady Park.  The magistrate then handed the artefact to Park Je-soo so he can deliver it to Yoo Je-se. The magistrate reveals that he works with Hungu and wanted to impress Yoo Je-se. Ji-sun orders his arrest and offers him the antidote.

The case reaches the court at the palace and they deliberate on what to do. In the end, the king comes to a decision after reading Han-soo’s and Yeon-joo’s appeals. He allows Young-sil to give birth and raise her kid until he is of age. It is only then that will she be held responsible for her actions towards Lady Park. Han-soo finds the ruling fair but is saddened that Young-sil had to take matters into her own hand to revenge her husband’s death.

After the case, Han-soo visits the village elder in his prison cell and promises to relieve the villagers if he tells him what he wants to know. The village elder tells him that his son Kwang Sik used to be the secretary of Officer Kang. He used to deliver letters between the King and Officer Kang. The last letter was unfortunately picked by a different person. Soon after the letter was delivered, Officer Kang ended up accused of accepting bribes and was killed.

The elder claims that he was scared so he feigned ignorance and burnt Han-soo’s house down the night his mom was killed.  He is sure someone is still after Han-soo and he tried to protect him by claiming that he died. However, now that Han-soo has revealed he is alive, the men will pursue him again. Han-soo demands to know who picked up the last letter from Kwang Sik.

Elsewhere in the palace, the King points out to Yoo Je-se that he owes him a favour for not mentioning that he had earlier recommended Magistrate Son Jong-Seok for a promotion. Yoo Je-se pretends to be humble and the King asks if he can make a recommendation of his own. Yoo Je-se is flustered but has no choice but to agree. He hides his anger but asks Lord Choo about Han-soo. He starts suspecting that Han-soo might be plotting revenge on Hungu.

Later that night, Yeon-joo anxiously waits for Han-soo to return and Lady Hong warns her about getting too attached to Han-soo. She is sure that Yeon-joo has feelings for Han-soo and doesn’t want her to get hurt.

Han-soo visits his old family home and finds the hiding place his dad used to keep his liquor. He finds a bottle of alcohol and drinks it as he reminisces about their happy days as a family. He remembers his young sister who was married off. Yeon-joo searches for him and finds him at the house. He mistakes her for his sister since he is drunk and hugs her crying and apologizing for what happened to their parents.

Yeon-joo comforts him and assures the guy that his parents have forgiven him. Han-soo refers to her as the princess and falls into her arms drunk.

The Episode Review

This case was sad because Young-sil’s pain could have been avoided and lives could have been saved. If the relevant government offices did their jobs, none of this would have happened. Young-sil felt like no one cared about her pain and misfortune, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.

I am curious to know who received the last letter and what they did. It must have something to do with why Officer Kang was framed and ultimately killed.

It was good to see Yeon-joo and Han-soo get closer in this episode. I feel bad for Ji-sun but I will chalk that down to second-lead syndrome and continue to wish the best for Han-soo and Yeon-joo. They have a lot in common and so far, they look like they would make a great couple. Nonetheless, I am sure that something will come along and threaten their love for each other. The only question is whether they will overcome it or this will end up being another sad ending to a beautiful love story.