We open this week with a wedding and end on a tragedy as our leading lady learns a shocking truth regarding her husband and strives to deal with the consequences.
The odds might be stacked against our heroine, but one thing for sure is that our leading lady isn’t one to give up on people she cares about to save her skin.
Bunny S. watches The Tale of Lady Ok on Viu
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 |
The Tale Of Lady Ok Episode 4 Highlights
“Your secret can’t compare to mine.”
Grabbing Yoon-gyum’s hand, Tae-young flees before that nasty lady can spot her. Revealing her secret to Yoon-gyum, he is rather relieved that Tae-young didn’t turn him down because she hates him. To assure Tae-young he won’t tell anyone her secret, Yoon-gyum reveals his secret too. Apparently, Yoon-gyum hates the idea of getting married because he can’t embrace a woman though he doesn’t elaborate much on it. Arguing that by getting married, they will be able to protect each other, Yoon-gyum persuades Tae-young to accept him as her husband.
Dropping by to attend the wedding, Seung-hwi gets heartbroken, watching Tae-young looking so pretty while getting married to another man. Still, the striking resemblance between Seung-hwi and Yoon-gyum isn’t lost on the former, arguing perhaps Tae-young chose to marry Yoon-gyum to keep thinking about Seung-hwi whenever she looked at her husband’s face since they couldn’t get married.
“Did they trick illiterate people to sign them and take the children?”
Moving into the Sung Family’s household, Tae-young is warmly welcomed by Lord Sung and Yoon-gyum’s younger brother, Sung Do-gyum (later played by Kim Jae-won). Not only does Lord Sung seem sincere when he tells Tae-young to consider him her father but he also sets up a study room and a separate office for Tae-young to achieve her goal of becoming a legal advocate and defending poor people.
All seems to be going well, with Do-gyum growing fond of Tae-young and Lord Sung feeling proud of his daughter-in-law. However, those peaceful days come to an end sooner than expected. At first, it appears like a typical corruption case involving the village chief forcing young kids into slavery to use them to mine gold illegally. Yet things get more complicated later.
Coming across a poor father begging to get his child back, Tae-young reports it to Lord Sung and together they devise a plan to save those children and return them to their parents. They are clearly outnumbered by the kidnappers, yet luckily for them, a masked man appears out of nowhere, helping out Tae-young and Lord Sung and then disappearing into thin air after taking away one specific kid.
Though Tae-young saw the man’s face (none other than Yoon-gyum), she kept it from Lord Sung. This encounter, along with the tattoo on Yoon-gyum’s shoulder, Tae-young confronts Yoon-gyum, desperate to learn the truth. As it turns out, Yoon-gyum set up a secret group to help out children like him, who were ostracized by society for being different, training them in martial arts so they could defend themselves.
“Do you only care about servants?”
Things come to a head when one of the kids Yoon-gyum saved ends up arrested after his secret gets revealed. All Yoon-gyum can think about is rescuing that kid even if he has to barge into the government office. When Tae-young tries to stop him, Yoon-gyum crosses the line, arguing that Tae-young only cares for servants since she used to be one of them. Thus, hurting her feelings. On the day of the trial, Tae-young shows up in court and saves the kid from getting executed, much to the protest of the village chief and the nasty town folks.
Already enraged about Lord Sung getting in his way and freeing the kidnapped children, the village chief sets up a trap for lord Sung after learning of Lord Sung’s plans to search the mountain where the illegal gold mining takes place, framing Yoon-gyum’s group for being rebels (albeit unaware of the leader’s identity) and accusing Lord Sung of negligence, letting rebels roam freely and releasing the kid from before instead of executing a “traitor” like him.
Running out of time, Yoon-gyum rushes to the organization’s headquarters to get rid of anything that could put them in trouble but unluckily the village chief arrives while Yoon-gyum is sorting things out. To buy Yoon-gyum some time to flee, the kid from before sacrifices himself, pleading to be taken in for investigation. But the village chief doesn’t care the slightest bit about the truth, slashing the kid with his sword.
Though he makes it home, Yoon-gyum gets caught red-handed by Lord Sung, who is shocked to learn about his son’s secret. Giving Yoon-gyum an ultimatum, Lord Sung tells Yoon-gyum to either scrap the tattoo on his back and forget about that organization, or Lord Sung will disown him. When Yoon-gyum refuses to follow his father’s words, Lord Sung tells him to leave and never return.
With Tae-young’s help, Yoon-gyum attempts to get on a boat and flee away. But on their way to the deck, Tae-young and Yoon-gyum almost get caught by the officers. Luckily, they are saved by Seung-hwi, who switches clothes with Yoon-gyum (so that the officers won’t spot the tattoo on Yoon-gyum’s shoulder), and helps them get to the deck safely.
When Tae-young returns to the house, Lord Sung urges her to leave before it is too late, since his family is already ruined. But Tae-young refuses to abandon Lord Sung and Do-gyum. Unfortunately, officers drop by the house to arrest Lord Sung and confiscate his belongings. We end this week with Lord Sung collapsing down, though we have to wait until next week to learn his fate.
The Tale Of Lady Ok Episode 4 Musings
Four episodes in and the drama manages to stay gripping, keeping me on the edge of my seat. I knew that Yoon-gyum had to disappear at one point so that we would shift our focus on Seung-hwi. But this turn of events was something I didn’t see coming. I guess Seung-hwi will keep playing Yoon-gyum for a while to stay next to Tae-young and protect her. But this will come to bite them when Yoon-gyum returns.
I have to admit that the show blindsided me with Yoon-gyum’s character arc. Last week, we were led to believe that Yoon-gyum was in love with Tae-young. Yet this week we learn that it was all admiration of her courage and steadfast beliefs. Yoon-gyum chose Tae-young because she was the only one with whom he could share his secret, without fearing that she would mock or take advantage of him. It was a friendship of sorts based on mutual respect and a vow to protect each other.
The scenes between Tae-young and Lord Sung were my favorites that week, given how sincere and warm-hearted Lord Sung is. Kudos to veteran actor Sung Dong-II for always charming us with his superb performance. Please, make it alive, Lord Sung, and stay by Tae-young’s side. The poor girl lost her father once and now she is about to lose her kind-hearted father-in-law on top of losing her husband.
Photos and Videos: JTBC Drama
