Yoo Jung has "succeeded" where Yi Tae woefully failed. The King has been unable to keep the Left State councillor on his toes and she has done this in a matter of weeks of being in the palace? Even the Left state councillor was impressed 😂😂😂. Can they just give her the crown?

I love a strong and smart female lead and it's such a breath of fresh air because I was getting tired of Yi Tae's never ending tears/lack of plan and seeing the Left state councillor 1000 steps ahead all the damn time!

Now regarding the plan itself... I definitely didn't think Jung's secret would be out so soon because we are only half way through the drama and I'm now left wondering how Jung and the King will manage this whole thing. The Left state councillor will definitely be out for blood!

Yi Tae will have to face the Minister of War and he deserves whatever is coming his way from that end

The only thing making this drama really attractive to me is the screencaps. As for the story, the weecaps and the following discussions are keeping me and my curiosity satiated. It's not palatable now but in future, it might be.

I really liked both episodes this week. I love a strong, smart heroine and Yoo Jung is a force to be reckoned with. I didn't expect her to do any of the things she did this week, which was fun.

When will the people who manage the palace grounds learn to make the pools too shallow to drown in?

Timing is everything. Had PGW confronted her first, she would lose the ammo her revealing it herself would have brought her. I'm really impressed. And I guess we are going to see the other side of Lady Cho now. That menacing glare after discussing with her father can't be for nothing. Just do not repeat The Moon Embracing the Sun vibes please - Don't play dirty, Lady Cho.

It seems like PGW married a court lady. Madame Yoon's collar has the same features of CL's. Are we getting a scoop story in that direction, show?

The moment Madame Yoon began raining accolades about Lady Yoo Jung, I knew PGW had something coming. What I didn't know was how far she was going to play her hand. Lady Jung is smart. A very good one. The way she solved the queen selection issue is....super super satisfying. And she forced the Queen Dowager back to the palace. More points for her. She really played her cards like PGW would. Used the Dowager as collateral damage and it gave her an edge. Unlike the incumbent and previous rulers who messed up despite the collateral damage ammo that was awarded them by Queen Inyoung.
At this point I don't know who to praise, the person wielding the pen for writing such a power play or Kang Hanna for immersing herself into the character. She carried it with this much strength.

This show is so beautifully shot. As for the messiness of Lady Jung's plan, sigh, lol. It was going to fail. As for the King, he is pretty useless, but his family left him ill equipped. His mother poisoned herself and his father only told him to survive. He didn't try to cultivate loyalty for him at all. What a mess. Lady Jung on the other has had to survive, so the Palace is probably not that hard for her, but she does have more allies than the king. The King unable to spend one night with Yeon Hee was not romantic, it was stupid, but everything he does is emotional so that makes sense. Sir, one night, but like solstices said, the heart wants what the heart wants.

I know a drama has a license to be dramatic, but this drama take it way too seriously the slow motions, falling petals, teary eyes, trembling chin, these make me laughing, when I'm supposed to feel kind of sad. But that's the reason I enjoy this drama.

first of all, I want to appreciate how beautifully shot this drama. The color scheme at night is bright warm orange but also have the sense of darkness, but not so dark like any other saeguk drama. And the ballad ost is so fitting also played wisely on some highlighted moments.

and how things turned to be unexpected. The King and The Councillor were trying so hard on creating a strategy to win over each other, yet both eventually played in the game set by the Lady who is ready to lost her life. And I eager to see if the Councillor will have a change of heart after saw that the Lady is the kind of ruler his heart desire. One who sacrifices to protect her people.

compared to the other King in other drama (Red Sleeve Cuff), I found this King though stoll intriguing, rather undesirable. both King accepted their fate as heir of the throne, but King in the RSC took the burden with courage, responsibility and confidence. He also have wits and wisdom to overcome struggles so he did not need to be malevolent to sustain rule and order. And more important, he has the willingness to protect his people for his main purpose is the well being of them.

but this King in the BH, he bears the crown with fear of losing it, therefore it made him somewhat cowardice. At the moment he is “forced” to chose between getting rid of his enemies or protect the woman he loves so she can live, he is tempted. Straightly tempted. His first impulse is to take Jung's offers to bring down his enemy, though he know the cost is also Jung’s life. He also appear to lack of wisom needed, cause in some scenes we've seen him made decisions that would end him up in difficult situations. But interestingly, he is somewhat smart enough to find way out of it and sometimes cunning enough to turn things into his benefit.

On other thing, I feel there is lack of depth about the conflict between The King and Park. The King hatred toward Park quite understandable, but the attack on Park's part to the King somehow for me driven by prejudice. We don't yet actually see what kind of ruler the King will become if Park just left him alone. There is no evidence that he is a bad King although there are some substantion that indicate he might not be the best King Joseon would have. I wish this old man would just give the mighty boy some time to catch his breath, rest his wounded heart, and let him work without continuosly reminded that his future is at old man’s mercy.

Yoo Jung owned episode 8! That is all.

I was right about PGW not knowing Yoo Jung yet which is why she can outsmart him but the actual surprise was PGW's reaction to all of this. Seeing Nam Sang's righteousness it really feels like younger PGW would've been different had he never encountered a tyrant king. His current behavior isn't innate and the show has given me a glimmer of hope that we may be headed towards a redemption arc for our villain. This is where his greyness shows. While he deserves the punishment for his evil doings, it would be awesome if he turns a new leaf seeing a righteous leader in Yoo Jung and trusting her to raise a son as a capable king. But yes he's behind the execution of her parents so I doubt we'll see sth like this though as I said, the show can surprise in places you don't think of.

“ I’ll be honest, Jung’s sacrifice didn’t quite land for me the way it was intended to. Coming this early in the story, I think it was pretty obvious it wouldn’t work out the way she hoped. (If a drama really dared to kill off its heroine halfway through, I’d commend it for its bravery, though I imagine it’d also incite a lot of angry viewers.)”

It has worked exactly as Jung hoped for. She is prepared to die to bring to fruition her goal but her intent is to survive. She has survived another day in that nest of vipers and at least, for the time being, has a superior bargaining position. If Tae could become hers in the process, that would be a bonus.

Our heroine did in a few days what two Kings could not even dream of doing,make Park Gye-won back away having the upper hand and gain his admiration at the same time...
Curious what role that Monk will play,will he also have a secret identity?
I must say that i enjoy most the scenes between Jung Hyuk and Kang Hanna and kinda less among our King and Concubine...I guess it's because our King looks so tired,out of life almost always...Kinda wished there would even be a hate/love relationship between Yi Tae and Yoo Jung,that at least would be more thrilling and full of sparks...

I don’t know about the rest of you but my tolerance for Jang Hyuk seemingly screaming every second line of his dialogue is at a very low point. This is such a counter-productive acting technique yet it seems to be entrenched in the KDrama world. Let it die. Please.

Well played, Yoo Jung. Gye-won certainly didn't see that coming. Everything was unexpected for Gye-won, for sure, but I also kind of sense he's now intrigued by Jung. I dare say, this thought seemed to also cross the Queen Dowager's mind after the whole tea incident at the temple.

Looking forward to everyone's next move.

I enjoyed the achingly sad but seductive lead up to the kiss more than the kiss itself (which was ok).
I have also been thinking of what I came across recently in a few years old article that a friend sent me. It was an interview with Lee (I) Joon where he discussed his diagnosis of bipolar disorder, how he has come to manage it better and his difficulties sleeping. It made me feel compassion for him as a person and an actor as it might be much harder for an actor in his position to deal with emotionally demanding and fraught roles than those who don’t take any of their work home and compartmentalise it well so maybe part of the reason that he always seems so intense and emotional in this role exemplified by his glistening eyes and readily shed tears is because of who he is as a person and his own struggle to survive as well as thrive.

My absolute favorite thing about this drama is that unlike most others, and especially sageuks, the women drive the action and the men react to them. Typically, and historically, it's almost always the opposite. Even when the writers are striving for balance, the female characters tend to be developed in accordance with or opposition to what the male characters do, say, or believe. How cool is it that in Red Heart, both Jung and the Queen Dowager are the ones driving the action and forcing the King and Gye-won to react to the women's choices rather than their own?

Jung's plan was selfless and clever; I was as impressed as Gye-won with the fact that she's acting more like a King than anyone else. This is not a criticism of Tae as he's clever and noble in many respects, but he's also clearly trapped by his circumstances and can't see any way out. His impotence and deep depression about it comes through in every scene and makes him a tragic, and sometimes weak, figure. Without Jung, he would have nothing. Or, I should say, whatever power he would manage to hold on to would be empty.

Finally, another interesting gender reversal rests in the fact that he's just like traditional female characters and historical figures in the respect that he's forced into a position where his role is to sleep with someone he doesn't want to sleep with. Of course, the difference is that he can ultimately reject a concubine if he wishes, at least temporarily. But I almost laughed out loud when he thought "Tonight, I will allow you to embrace me" while leaning in to kiss Jung. Pfft. She's the one allowing you to embrace *her.*

This drama is also extremely unpredictable. The plot is simple as is the central conflict, and yet, I never know quite where we're going. I did not guess Jung's plan, and I also didn't expect the King to (initially, at least) go along with it once he realized her intent to sacrifice herself.

And as an aside, I'm struggling to get over the fact that Gye-won ever asked the woman he obviously loved to be someone's concubine. Who does that? I hope we get a better sense of his motives because only a psycho would do something like that simply because he desired power and influence.

Loving this show because of Jung’s character—she’s no basic b**ch!

I’m mainly interested in how the left state councilor handles her current move. He clearly has found some kind of respect for her. I think an interesting turn would be him deciding to support her because he genuinely thinks she would be a good queen. It’s too bad she can’t be king cause she’s running circles around Yi Tae.

Speaking of him, he is an exhausting and frustrating character. Always brooding and kind of also moping…? And plotting revenge but with plans that are 10 steps behind everyone else. What is he bringing to the table???? Love?! Psh, get out of here. He lied to her for years. No matter how he tries to rationalize that it was for her own protection that is just not true. It was for his own guilt/selfishness. If he truly wanted to protect her he would have either told her the truth or never contacted her after helping her escape the palace. Ugh, MEN.