I loved this week's episode and this episode felt like a sageuk special episode. So did the most beautiful Joseon-era costumes and hairstyles. Aah, a good day of the sageuk!

My money is on the fox spirit / vice principal as the snitch. I don't think our leads would do that and there really isn't anybody else around. Also, there's not much other reason for him to even exist.

Oh boy, there is a lot to unpack here. And I don't mean it in a positive light. First of all, sageuk acting from our two leads was very weak. I expected as much from CEW who, bless his soul, neither looks nor sounds Joseon, but PKY was an unpleasant surprise. It felt like I'm watching a high school stage play. You may argue that this tongue-in-cheek, cosplay-like performance style was deliberate, but LHW and CY/JA actress were doing it the proper way, which resulted in sorta "these folks are acting in two different dramas" impression. In fact, I really enjoyed BG and CY short but tragic story - too bad it stood out like a sore thumb in this cute and fluffy (supposedly) romcom.

Now back to the leads - SH and MS. Is it just me or their love story was super weirdly written/paced? We see their meet cute, I believe, and from then on it's all over place - when and why they developed their forbidden romance? And when they made a baby? I was absolutely not prepared for this twist btw, it left me both shocked and kinda with a sour taste in my mouth - yunno, yangban boy secretly knocking up a slave girl doesn't look very good if you take it at face value. I am no moral police ofc, but the fact that we weren't given a solid backstory to justify this chain of events being presented as something romantic... *tries very hard not to cringe*

BG is as useless as every other mountain god we've seen in fantasy kdramas so far (sans GFB's daddy gumiho, I guess) - am I supposed to buy that he REALLY couldn't get to CY in time to save her? Lol. Also it totally looks like she stabbed herself/forced SH's hand so her pregnant maid bestie won't be a collateral damage to authorities' chase after CY. Girl was already depressed and suicidal over losing her baby (and what about her late husband? no one seems to care about him, ouch!), bet she couldn't bear to see such tragedy repeating itself. And ofc BG being a male and non-human misread the situation HARD. I mean, wtf dude?! I finally started warming up to your creepy revengeful ass and you just had to do THAT to the poor doggo uncle? Gimme that sword, I'll make a good use of it! Anybody needs a striped furry rug?

Barely there modern timeline bits were cute tho. Real shame that the drama lost any cohesiveness between it's different parts and genres at this point. Not dropping it YET, but heavens, am I tempted rn...

Soo-hyun and Mak-soon's love story was quite weird, it happened so fast, no building like we could except in a sageuk. Mak-Soon's bang was a little distracting too.

I likes Bo-gyeom and Cho-youn's scenes. But why immortals in Kdrama are so stupid? Why they don't investigate, ask people, etc. and just draw conclusions, spend years to wait for people to be reincarnated to see them suffering...

The bed scene was cute, it would have been cuter if CEW could emote a little bit more...

I don't think the story needs four more episodes to end.

Agree with this ditto ... "Come on, Show! Yul is my ray of sunshine amidst this curse nonsense, and I’d appreciate it if you can take Bo-gyeom away and give me back my Yul."

The Mountain deity was horrid for killing off the uncle in dog avatar. Is he supposed to harm humans/dogs or help and protect them?

100% with you on the the cliff of doom being a misunderstanding! I don't think the ancestor sold out her lady for sure. I found the past life story entertaining but I thought it was a little confusing in terms of the overall tone of the drama & was hoping for more current OTP fluff instead. Feels like they're trying to build towards this tragic star-crossed lovers vibe but that's at odds with the other wise light and whimsical tone the drama has adopted so far. I don't find it so jarring that I hated it but it does have me going ? for a bit. Also, not going to lie, but I'm not even the slightest bit invested in past or present Bo-geum, and found his scenes in the past few eps to be the weakest for me - it was no different with his past storyline, I found it less interesting than whatever was going on between Hae-na & Seo-won's ancestors.

All in all, I'm a little scared for what this means for our current timeline in the last four eps - please no dumb angst!!

Well i guess now we know how we got here. This was a weird episode.

Well, that did not work for me. What happened to the fluff? The attempt to explain BG's angst didn't land for me and this felt tedious. Better drama if they'd made it 10 eps and just focused on the story of the dog curse and how the dog-fearing ML finally got round to breaking it. That would have been fine.

@unit, thanks for the recap !
Not a big fan of the Joseon storyline. We have seen snippets of it in previous episodes .
I thought that Ep 10 was a strange spot in the show’s timeline to go full bore with the Joseon story line. Really weird timing Director -nim. The One-a-Week pace isn’t helping either .
The cute Cocoa the Dog story has taken a back seat to angry Tiger Man .
I understand from comments that the show has strayed from the webtoon and not for the better.
Aigoo. Hope the show turns around.

It was a bad day to be the uncle. In a total diversion from the main story line, this week it was all Mountain Spirit back story. Lady Cho Young was married to a collateral descendant of the king, but sought treason against the crown and was killed. Per custom, all traitors’ bloodlines are to be eliminated so she flees to the mountain with her servant, who in the end betrays her for her own lover, the Young Master. But before that happens, the Mountain Spirit has affection for Lady Cho to the point of intervening in her capture by killing many palace guards. Why did he not avenge her death by killing the Young Master and the Lady’s servant then and there? If there was a rule against spirits interfering in the affairs of humans, he had already broken it. The distance between time, tradition and the modern world makes this revenge story line seem weak and petty. I would rather have the story continue with the "aftereffects" of breaking the dog curse (for example if some dog traits are now hard wired into her personality and actions.)

I still havent watched this episode, I am not sure I am going to.

The past life is entirely different in the webcomic and I really don't like what the drama decided to do. See my fanwall for more, including if you want to know the webcomic version.

I'm finding the pregnancies such an odd choice, especially. Odd and confusing. This was so needlessly dark and complicated. And, like, Cho-young can't just love a dog? It has to have the soul of the baby she lost?

Also, CEW seems to have stopped emoting again.

This felt like a completely different show, one that I wouldn’t choose to watch. Disappointing, and I’m pissed about Uncle.

I pretty much had to force myself to watch this episode. It dragged

Haven't watched this episode yet, because I'm considering dropping this drama. I just can't fathom why the writers didn't do all of this backstory stuff during the first 8 episodes instead of waiting till now. I don't know just how many scenes there were of the second male lead staring vaguely into space in the first half, because I didn't count them (why would I?), but there were enough to replace all of them with at least some of this plot, and maybe then I would have care/be interested in any of it.

I want a boyfriend like Jin Seowon...
Cha Eunwoo, look what you did to me. I want that snuggly more than kiss in ep 9....