Wind Flower
Ryeon is having a bad day. She’s off work and wants to drink alone, but Jun-Woong shows up and tells her to stay away. When she falls asleep, Jun-Woong appears and talks to her about how he doesn’t want tomorrow to come. ..
Ryeon decides to visit a friend on her day off. Jun-Woong deliberates over what this means, but in her absence, Ryung-Gu shows up. He explains that Reapers only get one day off in a year – their death day. Around this time it’s natural for the individual to find their negative energy increase, and in the case of Ryeon, hers has gone up to 100%.
Jun-Woong continues to investigate this, and figures out that Ryeon actually committed suicide in the past. Jun-Woong wants to help resolve Ryeon’s pain, and the King of Heaven believes he’s adept enough to do just that now. So we’re whisked off to 400 years ago, where Ryeon is much younger and trying to hone her skills as a hunter.
Ryeon knows a lot about snake bites, having herself been one. She helps the young hunter who has been bitten, and she brings him back to the village. He is saved from certain death, and Ryeon is able to teach him a few things about snakebite prevention.
Ryeon and Joong-Gil are old friends, and when the rumours of war start to circulate in the village, they quickly become involved. Joong-Gil is a big part of Ryeon’s life, and he has been a big help in saving many people in the past. This episode is finally giving us some context to the drama we’ve been teased with for months.
Ryeon and Joong-Gil grow closer together, with Joong-Gil eventually admitting that he loves Ryeon after putting red rouge on her. Joong-Gil intends to take the exam to become a military official and fight off the barbarians should they come down and threaten their way of life.
Ryeon is worried about Joong-Gil and the way he’s been handling his military service. She’s also concerned about what will happen to him when he returns home.
One of the other women claims that these barbarians are actually part of the Qing army. Their leader is Hong Taiji, who has ascended to the throne after Nurhaci of Later Kin died. As they talk, those ruthless barbarians arrive and begin destroying everything, cutting up women and men left and right. Ryeon does her best to fight them off, grabbing her bow and arrow, determined to defend her hometown. ..
There are too many soldiers in the area, and despite valiantly defending her friend Gop-Dan, she’s greeted with an arrow through her back. As for Ryeon, she’s taken away by the soldiers, a rope coiled around her beck and dragged off by horses.
Joong-Gil’s forces have sustained causalities of their own too in their bid to fight off the barbarians. Unfortunately, when they return he finds out Ryeon has been taken. He grabs his horse and immediately rides off to save his beloved.
Ryeon is a cunning woman who knows her stuff. She makes a broth for the soldiers who have captured her as a prisoner of war, and this includes a poisonous root that’s known to kill anyone who ingests it. With the other prisoners, they manage to poison almost all the guards. In order to make sure the women are safe, they rush out of the camp and try to make it to safety. The flickering orange of torches in the distance are a constant reminder of the danger they face, as the women scramble to safety.
The women of the camp are in a race against time as they try to make it to Joseon alive. They are dehydration, exhausted, and struggling to carry on. The guards outside the gates turn them away if they are spies.
Ryeon challenges them but just before one looks set to kill her, Joong-Gil rides up and stops the men, promising to hurt them if they lay a hand on her. “Thanks for staying alive, sorry I’m late.” Joong-Gil says, as he speaks to his beloved.
Ryeon is still haunted by the ghosts of the past. She’s suffering from bad nightmares, and has been for a while, Joong-Gil suggests they go to the physician on the off-chance they can help prescribe something. Unfortunately public opinion of those taken as prisoners has declined. Rumours are spreading about Ryeon and the others, with Joong-Gil’s mother even deciding to look for a new wife for her son.
Some people in the town are saying that Ryeon is pregnant with a barbarian child. When Joong-Gil hears this, he brandishes a knife and demands to know where these commoners heard this. Just as things escalate, his mother shows again and lets them go. Joong-Gil is livid and wants revenge on the people who told him this.
After all the revelations and questions surrounding Joong-Gil’s family, Joong-Gil’s mother approaches Ryeon in private and challenges her, asking whether her own life is worth more than the honour of Joong-Gil’s family. She’s forced to decide whether to die “with honour” or by someone else’s hand. Whether this means she’ll bring an assassin into this or not though is unclear but that’s certainly the insinuation.
Ryeon, a young girl in a small town in South Korea, is the victim of a series of brutal attacks. One night, while she’s out with her friend Gop-Dan, another villager pierces Gop-Dan’s skull with a rock and he dies. Ryeon is so traumatized by the attack that she attempts suicide the next night. Joong-Gil, Ryeon’s older brother and the only family she has left, promises to protect her from the gossip circulating around town. However, Ryeon feels like she can’t do anything to stop the rumors from spreading. ..
Joong-Gil is enraged when he learns that his wife, Ryeon, has been badmouthing him. He kills several villagers who were critical of her before returning home. Ryeon shows up and is not happy that she’s killed them. “It would have been better had I not returned,” she says matter-of-factly, pointing out that their end could have been better than the living hell they’re currently in. She refuses to keep living knowing that her husband is losing himself, so she slits her wrists and let the blood spill from her hands.
Joong-Gil is in shock as he holds Ryeon after she was killed.
The Episode Review
Finally, we get some context around Joong-Gil and Ryeon’s past. Seeing how these two have been entwined together and their tragic love story that follows is certainly interesting and definitely one of the highlights of both characters.
At the same time, it would have been quite nice if the show had given us this story earlier in the season, so that we could more acutely feel the anguish of both Joong-Gil and Ryeon having their memories stored away and unclear how they both fit into the grand scheme of things.
There’s been a lot of historical drama in this show, and it’s easily one of the more interesting parts of this series. We’re nearing the end now, and with two episodes left, we’ll have to wait and see what this one has in store for us next.
