Six Flying Dragons: Episode 6

by HeadsNo2

It’s like there was a fire sale on pretty faces and Six Flying Dragons bought in bulk, isn’t it? Superficiality aside, this episode puts our young dragons in the same place at (mostly) the same time, as they all go on the hunt for a man who doesn’t seem to want to be found. Ever. Bang-won faces demons from the past, Moo-hyul gets to protect a real live girl, and Bang-ji gets the best fight sequences. This show may be many things, but underwhelming is definitely not one of them.

SONG OF THE DAY

Younha – “시간을 믿었어 (Believed In Time)” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 6 RECAP

When Jung Do-jeon gave Boon-yi the figurine, he’d also told her where to find him and who to ask. She sets off to do just that, but Bang-won stops her. He’s worried she was seen setting fire to the storage building, and that she’ll be caught if she doesn’t hide with him.

She refuses his help, knowing well what she got herself into. It’d be better for him to cease his involvement with her, she claims, adding that their perspectives are vastly different—he thinks she broke the law by farming land no one wanted in secret, and though she set fire to the grain storage as funeral rites for the little girl who died, he considers her a criminal.

“For a nobleman who has been delicately raised like a flower in a glass house, this is not something you can handle,” Boon-yi says. She thanks him for saving her and her fellow captives just the same, and takes her leave.

Bang-won takes offense to being called a delicate flower, leading Young-kyu to ask if he likes Boon-yi. Did he hear another sound in his wittle heart? To his bodyguard’s sarcastic tone, Bang-won straightens up and answers seriously that he did hear his heart. And right now, his heart is telling him to follow Boon-yi until the bitter end.

Boon-yi, meanwhile, tells her fellow villagers hiding in a cave to hang on without her for a month, while she goes to fetch someone who can actually help them. They don’t find this prospect appealing until Bang-won enters the cave, having tracked Boon-yi down.

They all look at his fine silk clothes in awe… but in the next shot, he’s been stripped of everything but his baji (ye olde underpants) and tied to a tree. A straight-faced Boon-yi tells him they’re all very sorry for stealing his clothes, but she’ll never forget his kindness.

Bang-won is understandably outraged, though he claims he understands their situation, and would be happy if they could survive off selling what they stole for him. Still, Boon-yi won’t untie him, since he could report them to the magistrate’s office. Nothing Bang-won says will convince her otherwise.

The most she can do, again being quite apologetic, is to leave a rock he can use to cut his ropes in, oh, say, a day or so. Bang-won yells after her that he can’t even report her when he doesn’t know her name, though he catches it when another villager calls to her. Does he recognize her as the Boon-yi he once knew?

Moo-hyul confronts his teacher over lying to him about Maehwangsa being filled with a bunch of rookies, since he’d made Moo-hyul’s defeat of one of their warriors seem like nothing. Master Hong tries to prove his superiority by making a big show of drawing his sword, but Moo-hyul is able to best him in a direct fight easily.

“When did I surpass you, Teacher?” Moo-hyul asks haltingly, only for Master Hong to sigh and admit that the pupil bested his teacher only one year after coming to him. He’s been lying to Moo-hyul about his abilities all these years in order to keep getting paid for “teaching” him. His only defense is that he held Moo-hyul back because he’s too strong for his own good.

Nothing Master Hong says now will convince Moo-hyul to stay with him, so his former student gives him a deep and respectful bow, despite everything, before going home to his enormous family.

Grandma Myo-sang isn’t thrilled that Master Hong’s been conning them out of food all these years, but she knows that he was right about Moo-hyul needing more than strength to attain a government post. They may not have wealth or connections, but a reputation is something Moo-hyul can get on his own. And defeating The Viper would garner him instant fame.

Bang-won finally manages to cut his own ropes, now determined to remember Boon-yi’s name so he can get some payback. (He hasn’t made the connection yet.) Young-kyu finds him half-naked in the woods and procures him some plain cotton clothes at a nearby inn.

Luckily for him, he steps outside to see Boon-yi talking with the innkeeper. They both have that moment of recognition before Boon-yi runs away, calling over her shoulder that she said she was sorry. It’s funny that neither of them will stop running until the other stops.

Bang-won is the one to step down first, though it’s all a ploy—he catches up to Boon-yi, only for her to bite him and run. They keep dragging each other down until they’re just wrestling in the grass, which ends with Bang-won biting her back. “Did you think I couldn’t bite you when you bit me?!” he asks defensively.

He ends up straddling her and pinning her to the ground much like he did when they fought as children, but he crawls off once it’s clear she won’t run away again. He wants clear answers to his questions: “Did I save you or not?” “You saved me,” she admits.

His next question: Did he look at her like a criminal when she set fire to the grain storage? Again, no. His last question: Did she think he followed her because he wanted to report her, or because he was worried about her? Boon-yi admits in a low voice that she knows he followed her because he was worried.

That’s exactly his point—he would have given her his gold necklace and clothes if she would have just asked, so why did she feel the need to steal from him instead? “Why would you ignore my generosity?” he all but yells, pinning her back to the ground in the process.

Even though he’s right on top of her, Boon-yi answers calmly, “You have power, and you are a noble. From what I have seen, those with power take everything away from us. That is why I cannot trust you.”

Bang-won leans in closer, so his face is just inches from hers as he tells her to take a good look at him, because he’s not the kind of person she described. Well, he tries not to be, anyway. But their little moment is broken when Bang-won recognizes the wooden figurine hanging around her neck as the twin of the one he took from the New Joseon Cave.

Boon-yi uses the time he’s distracted to make her escape, but not before she apologizes for hurting him. He’s too fixated on why she has that figurine to stop her.

General Choi Young is incensed when he finds out that Minister Hong raised taxes to ninety percent and killed anyone who resisted, but it’s Jung Do-jeon’s old friend Jung Mong-joo who tells the general that he’s partially to blame.

Minister Hong is backed by Lee In-gyeom, and Lee In-gyeom was put into power by General Choi—and by leaving him unchecked, he was able to solidify his unholy alliance with Gil Tae-mi and the late Baek Yoon. But now that Baek Yoon is dead, Minister Hong has taken over, and he’s infinitely worse.

Listening in on their whole conversation are Bang-ji and Gab-boon, since they’ve been hired as musicians to provide the ministers’ entertainment. Once they’re alone, Gab-boon tries to ease Bang-ji’s mind, knowing that he’ll be upset that things have only gotten worse since he he killed Baek Yoon.

He sends her off on an errand, and finds himself wishing again for Jung Do-jeon’s guidance. “Am I on the right path?” he asks. Flash back to his training with Jang Sam-bong, where he’d revealed to his teacher his conviction to kill Baek Yoon and bring an end to Goryeo.

When Jang Sam-bong had rightfully asked him what he’d do after killing Baek Yoon, Bang-ji returned that he’d find Jung Do-jeon and hear his next set of orders. That kind of thinking disappointed Jang Sam-bong, who said that if he had known that was Bang-ji’s goal, he would never have taken him under his wing.

Tears springing to his eyes, Bang-ji admitted gravely, “I have nothing else to do [in this world]… but this.” Examining Bang-ji’s blistered and bleeding hand, Jang Sam-bong sighed: “It is because of a woman, is it not? Then it’s something I cannot stop you from doing.” I must be missing the dot that connects Yeon-hee and his sudden conviction to follow Jung Do-jeon.

While Gab-boon uses the Beggar King to try to find Jung Do-jeon on Bang-ji’s behalf, General Choi tears Lee In-gyeom a new one for allowing Minister Hong to tax the people ninety percent. He warns Lee that if he doesn’t check Minister Hong or Gil Tae-mi, their alliance will be broken.

Even Minister Hong is looking for Jung Do-jeon, but he gets the same intel as everyone else looking for him—no one knows where he is, but a priest-turned-merchant named Lee Eun-chang might.

Bang-won doesn’t know he’s following Jung Do-jeon’s trail by following Boon-yi’s, but she leads him to the market where Lee Eun-chang is said to be working. Bang-ji and Gab-boon arrive at the same seaside market, where Lee Eun-chang is currently wounded and running from a gang of pursuers.

Bang-ji employs his extensive acting skills to pretend he’s just a passerby and good samaritan when he sees Lee Eun-chang getting beat up, and doesn’t even miss a beat in the folk song he sings as he dispatches the thugs with ease.

Moo-hyul has arrived at the market as well, and it turns out his siblings were right to warn him against falling for girls—he’s still so caught up in Boon-yi calling him “Warrior-nim” that he envisions her face on other women… before he spots the real Boon-yi nearby and grins like a fool.

While he practices how to smoothly approach her, Boon-yi unknowingly enters the den of thugs on her quest to find Lee Eun-chang. Moo-hyul hears the commotion but gets there too late—everyone, including Boon-yi, is gone.

The thugs are recognizable as monks from Biguk Temple, but at least they’re terrible actors, since Bang-won, Bang-ji, and Gab-boon can see through their ruse to abscond with Boon-yi by disguising her as a plague victim. (Bring out your dead!)

The monks answer to Jukryong, who interrogates Boon-yi about Lee Eun-chang when she’s brought to his temple. Since she knew where to find Lee, he assumes they’re in cahoots and gives her a cipher they stole off the runaway MacGuffin—if she can’t decipher it, bad things will happen to her.

Bang-won and Young-kyu disguise themselves as monks in order to enter Biguk Temple and find Boon-yi, but Jukryong sees right through them. Young-kyu tries to attack him, but is quickly outnumbered by a small army.

Unfortunately for them and Boon-yi, Jukryong takes their failed rescue attempt as further proof that Boon-yi is someone important, though they’re saved from being cut down at the last minute by Minister Hong.

Bang-won tries to be polite and diplomatic with his former teacher, but Minister Hong notes that the last time they both had business with the same person, Bang-won killed them. “Did I not always tell you that we have a strange understanding of each other?” Minister Hong notes with a smile that is definitely not returned.

In flashback, we see that Minister Hong made Bang-won beholden to him by force—while he kept Bang-won locked up (“Because you know too much about me,” he reasoned), he forged a poster from Bang-won claiming that Scholar Kang’s father dealt illegally with Gil Tae-mi in order to cover up for his son’s crime.

When Bang-won was finally released, he was treated like a pariah from the other scholars, who blamed him for writing the poster that caused Scholar Kang’s father to kill himself. Minister Hong had furthered their alliance in front of the other scholars by chastising them for beating Bang-won up, and by asking for them to bow to Bang-won if they felt apologetic.

“Why are you doing this? I would rather you just punish me!” a little Bang-won had screamed at Minister Hong. As for the scholars, they stood and refused to bow until they all dropped like dominos from exhaustion.

Gloating, Minister Hong knew that little Bang-won would like nothing more than to kill him, considering how determined he was to stamp out all evil. But he made sure to remind him, “That which can redeem you is not justice, but power. I will give you power. Join hands with me.”

In a bid to alienate Bang-won so that he’d have no one else to turn to, Minister Hong repeatedly gave the other scholars the chance to bow to Bang-won, only for them to repeatedly choose to stand until they collapsed instead.

Try as he did during those six years, Minister Hong couldn’t get Bang-won to break. In the present, he asks again, only for Bang-won to forcefully return: “How many times must I give you this reply? I… will never join hands with you. You say that the world, not yourself, is the most despicable thing, and I shall never share power with the likes of one who has fallen to weakness and weak rationalization.”

“Then what shall you do?” Minister Hong asks, just as arrogantly as always. “What can you do? Haven’t you endured long enough? All of your comrades have turned their backs on you, and there is no one who will listen to your story. Have you not been wandering all this time?”

But Bang-won says that he’s found his path, only for Minister Hong to shrug that claim off—Bang-won will lose his way again, like he always has. “It’s different now,” Bang-won growls with tears glistening in his eyes. “On this path I have found, we will cross paths again, and I will destroy you.”

Minister Hong hopes he does. Well, he hopes he’ll try and fail. “This time, you will need enough strength to kill me. You are the one who can endure the suffering I and anyone else inflicts upon you. But one who has fallen to his own weaknesses will not be able to endure for long. Make sure to find [your path]. If you cannot find your way again this time, it seems you shall truly be caught in my hands.” Just ask him out on a date already.

Meanwhile, Bang-ji attempts to sneak into the temple wearing a mask, only to be caught by the monk-thugs who recognize him from the market. Bang-ji soon finds himself surrounded, and with no other choice but to fight his way through.

It’s Moo-hyul who succeeds where everyone else failed, as he breaks the lock on Boon-yi’s prison and frees her. I love that when she calls him “Warrior-nim,” he puffs up like a prize turkey: “Yes, I am Warrior Moo-hyul.”

In a legitimately cool fight scene, Bang-ji faces off against a horde of warrior monks, while Moo-hyul takes down anyone blocking his and Boon-yi’s escape. If that wasn’t already cute enough, he even leads her by the hand.

The swarm of monks just gets bigger, and Bang-ji uses his sword and scabbard as weapons as he darts from foe to foe almost too quickly for the eye to see. He meets a stronger opponent when Jukryong takes him on, but he breaks Jukryong’s sword in two when he uses his superhuman abilities to backflip off a statue. He even gets close enough to cut Jukryong’s prayer beads off his chest before he dashes off toward the sound of Gab-boon’s whistle.

Jukryong is left wondering who taught Bang-ji martial arts, while his other monks report that Boon-yi escaped with a very very tall man’s help during the fight—and the cipher went with her. Bang-won figures it was Moo-hyul when the monks describe the sword he was carrying, because he’s still using the sword Bang-won gave him.

He tells Minister Hong the equivalent of “Better luck next time” before he and Young-kyu are allowed to go on their merry way. But with his conversation with Minister Hong still fresh in his mind, Bang-won is determined to find Moo-hyul and Boon-yi, convinced that not doing so will make him just as weak as Hong claimed he was.

Bang-won and Young-kyu return to the market to try and find Lee Eun-chang, only for him to find them first. He’s got one foot in the other world already, but sees the figurine around Bang-won’s neck and believes him to be on Jung Do-jeon’s side. Before he dies, he hands him another strip of coded letters.

Once they’re a safe ways away from the temple, Moo-hyul deflates when Boon-yi says they should go their separate ways. She won’t tell him where she’s going, and slips away on the excuse that she has to pee…

…While Bang-won puzzles over the gibberish in the code, realizing that Jung Do-jeon’s circle must be much bigger and more organized than he thought. Jung Do-jeon must be up to something, and Bang-won’s sure that deciphering the code will lead them to him.

Bang-won realizes that the wooden figurines he and Boon-yi have must hold some clue, and no sooner does he find a hidden compartment in his figurine does Boon-yi find one in hers. Granted, the nanjagak (codebreaker) had already been shown to her by none other than Jung Do-jeon himself.

By wrapping the code strip around the wooden insert, both Bang-won and Boon-yi are able to decipher the codes they have. (But Boon-yi cheated, kinda.) Both strips bear the same message: “Shut down the seven bases, assemble in Hamju, and become Lee Seong-gye’s people.”

Moo-hyul is over the moon when Boon-yi asks him to accompany her to Hamju, which is exactly where Bang-won wants to go. It’s his father, after all.

 
COMMENTS

Aw, no official induction into the Six Flying Dragons Hall of Fame for Moo-hyul? I’m head over heels for his derpy, happy self, and love that his lightheartedness isn’t taken to such extremes that he can’t be taken seriously when he needs to be. He brings some comic relief to the proceedings, but not necessarily by acting like a clown, which is an all too commonly used device in sageuk. Instead, we get a dynamic character who also happens to be quite funny when he’s not trying, and that’s a winning mixture if there ever was one.

Similarly, I would’ve expected Bang-ji to be the classic stoic swordsman who feels feelings but acts like he feels nothing (the paaaaain, man), and while there’s some measure of that in him, he’s also the furthest from being one note. Well, his motivations are falling a bit flat at the moment, though I expect we’re not yet done finding out what drove him to take up Jung Do-jeon’s cause. As of now, it seems like he just went all-in for a new king and country during those six years off, and somehow believes that helping to end Goryeo will make up for what happened to Yeon-hee.

At least, that’s what we’re being led to believe so far, but it’s not like there’s more to mine from what little we’ve been given. Bang-ji’s put a whole new spin on “hiding in plain sight” by moonlighting as his own alter-ego’s storyteller, which is either a bit vain or secretly ingenious. I haven’t figured out which, but I like that he’s got a toolkit of personalities to use as disguises, even if not all of them work as flawlessly as he’d like. Then again, I guess when the acting ruse fails, all he has to fall back on are his crazy martial arts skills. Life is so hard.

Six Flying Dragons isn’t a show that delights in being pretentiously smart, but it does expect a certain level of attention from its audience—and even when it has your full attention, it doesn’t make things easy. Chronologically we’re in a bit of a weird place right now, only knowing that Lee Seong-gye has yet to ascend the throne, which really just tells us that the year 1392 hasn’t happened yet. We’re also finding out about the bigger picture as our characters are, and so far, all of them are in the dark as to what Jung Do-jeon’s great plan is. The only one who has a slight leg up on the competition is/was Boon-yi, at least until Bang-won figured out how to break the secret code on his own.

Now everyone will be converging on Hamju on a wild goose chase to track down the elusive Jung Do-jeon, though the show is handling the would-be reveal quite well. It’d be boring if we kept getting cuts to Jung Do-jeon and his plans while our other dragons tried solving a puzzle we already knew the answer to, so it’s much more fun to be on the same page as they are, even if the show sometimes tries to fill in those missing six years as though we’re already up to speed.

The complicated flashback involving Minister Hong’s psychological torture of Bang-won is a good example of that, since I’m still left scratching my head over it. Yes, I get that Minister Hong really, really wants Bang-won on his side, but why? He has his father’s name, but as Hong pointed out, he has no power. So to spend six years alienating him from the rest of his (admittedly small and elite) world just to try and break him takes their adversarial relationship to a level I’m not even sure there are words for. Where was Young-kyu when Bang-won was getting shoved into rice chests by an obsessive old dude, anyway? And where’s Bang-won’s Hong Tree? C’mon, Bang-won. Get angry. It’ll do you more good than crying. (History: “Challenge accepted.”)

 
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