Episode 15
Episode 15 of The Tale of Lady Ok begins with Tae-young’s strategy. She believes that if she is seen with Seung-hwi and Man-seok, her cover will be blown for good. Seung-hwi hesitates before leaving with Man-seok.
At present, the noblewomen gossip but Madam Hong defends the couple. Do-gyeom rushes to Governor Heo who claims his hands are tied. He also spills that witnesses can vouch that Seung-hwi looks like Yun-gyeom and was involved with So-hye and Gu-deok.
While on the run, Seung-hwi and Man-seok stop for rest. They have a bittersweet moment as Seung-hwi returns Man-seok’s money and shares that he was never his slave, but his friend. That being said, he wants Man-seok to leave for Qing while he turns himself in. Man-seok tries to refuse when they are caught by the guards. A guard shoots at Man-seok but Seung-hwi takes the arrow to his arm.
Meanwhile, Dokki cries as he believes it is his fault for making Seung-hwi impersonate Yun-gyeom. At the same time, Do-gyeom blames himself.
We finally get to the public arrest of Tae-young which is shown in the first scene of Episode 1. She is kept in one quadrant while another holds Man-seok and Seung-hwi who bicker about getting caught.
Madam Kim visits Scholar Lee and seems to be on the verge of forgiving him. His symptoms have gotten worse and he is to be quarantined. As one last favour to Tae-young, he hints that Bak may have had an ulterior motive for arresting Tae-young.
As for the interrogation, it is going smoothly as Tae-young constantly pokes holes in So-hye’s accusation. However, she is shocked when Seung-hwi confesses to his real identity and claims to have fooled Tae-young by pretending to be Yun-gyeom. Do-gyeom tries to testify on his behalf but Seung-hwi insists that no one knew of his identity.
While being transferred, Seung-hwi and Tae-young spot each other. She cries while he simply apologises for not staying by her side. He gives her the gat gems he had kept with Man-seok.
There is some good news as Tae-young’s brother vouches for her. However, Seung-hwi is found guilty of going against the Qing Royal Order and impersonating Yun-gyeom.
As for So-hye, she is furious about the outcome as there is evidence. Bak tells her to wait but she goes behind his back. Governor Heo is shocked to learn of the new evidence.
He presides over Tae-young, Seung-hwi and Man-seok’s trial. The first piece of evidence is Seol-rang, the artist who plagiarised Seung-hwi’s novel in Incheon. The new allegation is that Tae-young, Seung-hwi and Man-seok killed Yun-gyeom.
All three are tortured till Seung-hwi confesses that he killed Yun-gyeom alone. Do-gyeom tells the truth but no one believes him. Next, So-hye shows up with Tae-young’s father. He tries to feign ignorance but Tae-young calls him father and faints.
Back in prison, Man-seok is delirious as Seung-hwi falsely confessed for nothing. He jokingly hopes Seung-hwi redeem himself by naming his kid Man-seok. He dies from the torture and Seung-hwi is heartbroken.
The King orders leniency for Tae-young’s legal contribution and instead of execution, she is given back to So-hye. Meanwhile, Seung-hwi is to be executed. Governor Heo and Do-gyeom have a sombre meal as the former is conflicted by Tae-young’s betrayal. However, Do-gyeom doesn’t care about her status as she is like a mother to him.
At So-hye’s, the female slave, Geum-bok takes care of Tae-young. She learns that her father lived in a temple till he was caught. However, Bak won’t take any drastic measures as Heo’s guards patrol the area to stop any incidents.
On top of that, all of the medicines are stored in the house. Tae-young quickly figures out Bak’s plan of hoarding the medicine and selling it at a high price. Of course, Bak is furious with So-hye for putting his scheme in jeopardy. He threatens to kill her should she disobey him again.
Do-gyeom buries Man-seok and visits Seung-hwi. He wants to find Yun-gyeom but Seung-hwi stops him. He wants Do-gyeom to protect Tae-young and gives a letter.
Madam Kim gets the letter to her by threatening So-hye. She plans to help Tae-young escape who has given up. She convinces her that she doesn’t need Tae-young’s name to do good and she must live for her child. If not, she will waste the sacrifices of everyone involved.
Kim also tells her about Lee’s suspicion of Bak using the scandal to hide his medicine hoarding. They realise that this is how Bak framed Devoted Hearts and Magistrate Seong.
Later, So-hye gloats at how she learned of Seung-hwi. During the Hanyang-aloe fiasco, she followed Tae-young who took Seung-hwi to her mother’s grave. They goad each other till Tae-young reveals Bak ensured Nak-su took the fall for the eternal ginseng scam. So-hye wants to retaliate but Tae-young doesn’t care as she is going to die soon – she has the same virus as Lee.
She has faked the symptoms but it is a bad gamble as she is taken to quarantine. In one of the beds, Lee is being treated by a masked Hae-gang. Tae-young follows him as he heads to a masked nurse who is none other than Yun-gyeom. At the end of The Tale of Lady Ok Episode 15, Yun-gyeom locks eyes with Tae-young.
The Episode Review
The Tale of Lady Ok Episode 15 tones down the comedy to focus on the trial and the angst. Even when there is humour, it’s pretty dark and bittersweet such as Seung-hwi and Man-seok bickering in prison. We knew the moment that Man-seok got his time to shine, he was going to die. But we were holding out hope.
However, this chapter had a much better execution than the odd few episodes 7-8-9. Rather than being tedious, watching the lies unravel was quite entertaining. Viewers can almost believe that our heroes will get away with it, till they don’t. It is also interesting to see the way the secondary characters who owe Tae-young come to her rescue such as Madam Hong and Governor Heo.
Yun-gyeom is one odd little fellow though. We are hoping the final episode can redeem his character. But we do wonder why he didn’t come to Tae-young’s rescue when she was accused of being a widow. And again when Hanyang was rife with rumours of Seung-hwi killing Yun-gyeom. He owes Seung-hwi one from the Devoted Hearts scandal and shouldn’t he care for his platonic wife?
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