The Tale of Lady Ok – K-drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

Episode 6

Episode 6 of The Tale of Lady Ok begins with Tae-young waking up to find Dol-seok. Turns out the people that surrounded her and Seung-hwi are runaway slaves. They team up and find the mining cave. Slaver Ji and his men are waiting for them and attack. However, Seung’s right-hand man was secretly released by the provincial governor. With his officers, they easily capture the slavers and free the kids.

On a cliff nearby, Tae-young spots Madam Kim and saves her. Tae-young shows her the enslaved kids and promises her that her husband will pay. Shocked, Kim heads home and confronts Madam Hong and Lee who begs Minister Bak for help. As predicted, he feigns ignorance and threatens Lee to stay quiet about his involvement. Tae-young feels relieved by the outcome but Seung-hwi warns her not to weaponise the law for revenge but to simply seek justice.

Lee turns over the gold to the palace and compensates the enslaved kids. But he stays quiet about his role in framing Seung. This enrages Tae-young as she vows to make him pay. 

Hae-gang wakes up and attends the public hearing. He tells the truth about the Devoted Hearts Association but claims he doesn’t remember who stabbed him as advised by Tae-young. 

Next, Lee confesses to illegal mining and tricking children into slavery. According to his crimes, he is to be flogged, branded and executed. However, Tae-young defends him. The law suggests mercy when one confesses and repents. She reasons that if they don’t show mercy, other citizens won’t consider confessing to their crimes out of fear of capital punishment.

The slavers are imprisoned while Hae-gang is set free. Lee is stripped of his title as chief and Seung’s honour is restored. However, the Seungs’ assets are still under the Lees. But it doesn’t end there as Lee’s pride is hurt due to Tae-young’s help. She reminds him of her promise to help him should his family return Mak-sim to her.

On top of that, Magistrate Seung had said that everyone is equal in the eye of the law including one’s enemies. This breaks Lee who returns all of Seung’s assets to Tae-young. The Seungs finally hold a proper funeral for Magistrate Seung and Do-gyeom is grateful to Tae-young.

Following the events, Tae-young and Seung-hwi have a bittersweet parting. They expect Yun-gyeom to return soon once Hae-gang updates him on everything. Seung-hwi asks for the gat gemstones as he hopes to have something of Gu-deok. As he leaves, she confesses that she loves him and they tear up. 

7 years later, Tae-young has expanded her law firm. Yun-gyeom still hasn’t returned. Do-gyeom comes first in his state exam and hugs Tae-young publicly. Madam Hong as usual scoffs at their PDA. But the women all run to send proposals when Tae-young declares that he is ready for marriage.  

There is a new player in town, Cha Mi-ryung who has a meet-cute with Do-gyeom. She drops her jade accessory and thinks he is stalking her when he tries to return it. She is in town on behalf of a worker who has been wrongfully fired due to a contagious illness. Tae-young takes her case and is impressed with her collection of evidence. They visit the other sick villagers and see that it is a non-contagious rash. 

Later, Do-gyeom stops by and is surprised to see Mi-ryung. She is apologetic when she realises he was trying to return her accessory. He also saves her when one of the patients’ violent husband tries to hurt her. Alone, Mi-ryung threatens the villagers to stay quiet over something.

Tae-young and Mak-sim believe Do-gyeom and Mi-ryung like each other and send a proposal to the Chas. At the same time, Tae-young misses Seung-hwi and wonders about Yun-gyeom.

Mi-ryung solves the case of the unlawful employer on her own and offers her services as Tae-young is short-staffed. She accepts and uses the chance to orchestrate a walk between Mi-ryung and Do-gyeom who once again saves Mi-ryung when a wagon almost runs her over.

As for Seung-hwi, it has been 2 years since he wrote or performed. He also seems to be married and has a child. On top of that, Man-seok suddenly arrives and asks Tae-young’s help in defending Seung-hwi who is in Incheon prison. Apparently, he barged into someone else’s performance and threatened to kill everyone.

Tae-young parts with Do-gyeom who makes her promise to return to him safely. As Man-seok and Tae-young make their way to the port they see a man who looks like Seung-hwi. With Seung-hwi in prison, she realises it is Yun-gyeom. She is excited as she runs to him. But he avoids her and gets on a departing boat. Man-seok and Tae-young are shocked by his cold reaction at the end of The Tale of Lady Ok Episode 6.

The Episode Review

The Tale of Lady Ok Episode 6 finishes up another arc and starts a new one with the introduction of adult Do-gyeom and Mi-ryung who is up to no good. It is almost like watching an anime with different arcs that make up Tae-young’s eventful life. On the spot, we cannot recall any other K-drama that is made up of such short segments (maybe Welcome to Waikiki) but it is quite refreshing.

It fleshes out the lead characters by putting them in new and intriguing situations. It also keeps the story from getting dull or boring by introducing short tales while constantly giving us hints of the overarching mystery of Tae-young’s trial of her identity and marrying two people. And now that we think of it, maybe her two husbands aren’t Seung-hwi and Yun-gyeom but Seung-hwi and Do-gyeom.

The chapter puts special attention on Do-gyeom and Tae-young’s relationship which feels way too strange for outsiders like Madam Hong. And Yun-gyeom is soon to be out of the picture if we are to take the next episode’s teaser at face value. Well, apart from this speculation, all we know is that we cannot wait to see what happens next!