Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung – Season 1 Episode 10 Recap & Review

Officer Min’s Past

Rookie Historian returns today for another episode of historical drama, this time interestingly turning the focus on Officer Min instead. With the first signs of a possible love triangle in the future and more backstory around our characters, Rookie Historian continues to deliver the goods in its latest hour-long episode.

We return to Goo and Lee hiding out from the rain. As it begins to subside, they venture out and hold hands, deciding it’s the best course of action to avoid being attacked by a tiger. As they head back to the office, narrowly avoiding the other Apprentices who may see them, Goo is told by Officer Min to rewrite her notes again, sensing her feelings for Prince Lee are getting in the way of an impartial account.

Later on that day, the Historians discuss other possible career paths they could take before Goo stumbles upon some inaccuracies with Official Jeong’s address. As they dig deeper they realize it’s been forged to get around the Kinship act which prevents Officers from being promoted to a position of power in their home-town. Officer Min decides to get to the bottom of the incident and confronts the Official in charge of the personnel files, who admits what he’s done.

Unfortunately this backfires as Min comes under fire and his past is brought up too, setting him up into the firing line. Broken and ashamed, Min hands his letter of resignation in to the Crown Prince before storming off. However, Goo chases after him, telling Min not to give up. As he stews over his own past, we’re graced a series of flashbacks where we learn the truth about what happened to him, including the emotional moment he sees Dan-Yeong hanging from the ceiling with a noose.

As Officer Min returns to work the following day, Goo shows him the journal she’s been working on, taking his words on-board and producing an encryption free of bias. Requesting to speak to her outside, Min and Goo playfully talk before Lee interferes and asks her to follow him. Knowing a historian needs a reason to follow, Lee stares at him suspiciously instead, hurrying off as Min contemplates just why he can’t give her a reason.

Alone, Lee interrogates Goo over her feelings with Min before admitting the way she felt about the hand holding. Satisfied with her answers, Lee lets her return to the office while he smiles. The episode then ends with a letter for the Queen Dowager arriving in the dead of night while Goo is caught eaves-dropping on a private conversation where we leave the episode.

While there isn’t much in the way of plot development here, there’s enough character subplots to make for an enjoyable watch nonetheless. With things left hanging on another cliffhanger, who knows what’s in store for our rookie historian next week but for now, this Korean drama bows out with another enjoyable slice of drama, well and truly solidifying the change in tone across to romance and drama rather than comedy.