The Ghost
Episode 5 of The Forbidden Marriage has Shin-won taking So-rang away from the King and telling her about the conjugal night. When she doesn’t believe it, he hugs her. The King sees them and he is furious. He challenges Shin-won that if he wins a duel he can take So-rang with him. Shin-won is hesitant to fight but the King raises his sword. So-rang stops him from killing Shin-won and tells him about the conjugal night. The King, angry, goes back to his room and asks to be left alone. So-rang asks him why he fought with Shin-won and whether he has feelings for her. He denies it and states that all the women in the palace are his but she doesn’t believe him. So-rang then confronts Shin-won and asks him why he acted that way. He asks her if she really doesn’t know about his feelings and if she also feels the same way. So-rang breaks his heart and says that she only sees him as a friend. Meanwhile, Lady Seo secretly brings the Grand Queen Mother to her training school for prospective brides. Hyun-hee catches the matriarch’s eye and is granted an audience with her but she introduces herself as Hyun-seon. Meanwhile, some women see the late Crown Princess while going to do laundry and are frightened. At Aedaldang, a new romance is blooming as Chun-seok hangs around Hae-yeong. Painter Jeong sees them and is jealous. But he has been writing her romance novels which in actuality are K-drama stories like Extraordinary You and has become closer to her. Chun-seok returns his books and claims Hae-young as his woman and they bicker. The King calls Shin-won and tells him that he wanted to punish him but he can’t. He requests him to protect So-rang as a favour for a friend. He also tells him not to have feelings for her. Shin-won reminds the King of the Crown Princess and wonders if he has forgotten So-rang’s true purpose at court. The King feels guilty and dreams of the Crown Princess telling him that he never loved her and that he is forgetting her. He hopes she can tell him who murdered her but he wakes up. He sees So-rang sitting beside him who looks annoyed. He asks her to get possessed by the Crown Princess once more and she is frustrated. She bursts and imagines asking him about their relationship and telling him that she is a con artist. However, in reality, she complies but she is stuck when the King asks her who is the murderer. She ends up making a mistake when she gets angry and as the Crown Princess, says that she never loved him but was only loyal. The next day, the King is in a daze as he believes the Crown Princess never loved him. So-rang tries to fix things by asking him to remember the times she expressed her love. But all he remembers is the time when she spoke about loyalty which worsens his mood. He calls the Crown Princess’ father, Lord Ahn who cannot understand the difference between love and loyalty. So-rang suggests asking her personal handmaid. Hijinks ensue as So-rang makes the King and Shin-won dress like commoners, accidentally kicks the King and makes him unintentionally jealous by sharing a horse with Shin-won on their way to the handmaid. But the handmaid is of no help as she shares the Crown Princess hated going to the palace. They also meet the court lady who served the Crown Princess. She too has nothing helpful as instead, she reveals that the King was too busy worshipping the Crown Princess to sleep with her and beget a son. She also says the gay rumours popped up because he would often ‘train’ with Shin-won at night which has the two men flustered. Shin-won catches So-rang paying the two women and realises that what they said was all made up. She tries to clarify that she did it all so that the King forgets about his wife and lifts the ban. She uses the friend card to stop him from telling the King and he is amused. But he asks that in return she shouldn’t fall in love with the King. At Aedaldang, Hae-young comes screaming which has Chun-seok and Painter Jeong worried. She brings the rumour about the Crown Princess’ ghost. Gwaeng Yi tells Hae-young to stop as this could ruin So-rang’s scam. Shin-won approaches Gwaeng Yi and asks how he knew about the assassins but he doesn’t tell him. Instead, he indirectly warns him to prepare for the next attack. Chun-seok accompanies Shin-won back and tells him about the Crown Princess’ ghost. That night, the Crown Princess visits her father who is happy to see her but when he runs to her she disappears. So-rang and Shin-won suspect that it is a trick where an unknown woman, wearing the royal wedding gown pretends to be the ghost. The two act like a couple who need a wedding gown and visit the royal seamstress. He tells them that only one royal wedding gown exists and it is the Crown Princess’ which is now at her father’s place. He asks if they will return after the marriage ban and Shin-won seems hopeful which has So-rang unnerved. They then go to Lord Ahn who is tearfully adamant that he saw his daughter. They ask to see her belongings and see that her royal wedding gown is untouched. At the same time, the Captain of the Royal Guard informs the Military Minister that the palace is close to finding the killer. They discuss killing So-rang the same way as the Crown Princess so that the King can never love again. Alone in his room, the King hears an eerie noise and goes to investigate. Shin-won and So-rang hear it too and run to it. The King and everyone with him see the Crown Princess and he goes to her but she disappears into the lake. He tries to go underwater but So-rang hugs him from the back and begs him to stop.
The Episode Review
Looks like friend-zoning in the Joseon era is pretty dangerous as we cannot help but feel bad for Shin-won. Poor guy not only lets down his best friend but also commits treason by fighting with a king and cutting off his robe only for So-rang to say they are friends. And along with the King, it seems that even we have forgotten about So-rang’s purpose at court and that she is supposed to be a con artist as we also fall in love with her. Thankfully the doom and gloom of the first half of episode 5 of The Forbidden Marriage also end quickly when So-rang imagines shaking the king and asking him why he’s a fool for falling for her scam. We too would if we fell for someone foolish enough to believe that people can be possessed by ghosts especially when So-rang is so bad at pretending to be the Crown Princess. While we only got the King’s point of view in the previous episodes, this time we see So-rang blundering and fumbling every time she pretends to be possessed making us wonder just how blind the King must be to fall for her act.
