Episode 8

Park Ki-woong

Lee Ji-hoon

Park Ji-hyun

Choi Deok-moon

Kim Min-sang

Gong Jung-hwan

Kim Yeo-jin

Sung Ji-ru

## Episode Synopsis

Hae-ryung entreats Yi Rim to allow a controversial procedure that may ease the epidemic, but Woo-won questions whether she grasps her role as a historian.

## Plot Summary

Physician Mo-wha explains to Prince Dowon that inoculating a child with fluid from smallpox lesions could save their lives. She and a former royal physician beg him to allow the variolation procedure, but the prince, unhappy with the success rate of 7 out of 12, does not wish to take the risk.

In secret, Mo-wha and Eunuch Heo Sam-bo meet, where she worries about Prince Dowon being in close proximity with the sick. She asks Heo Sam-bo to convince the prince to allow variolation. Prince Dowon second-guesses his decision, afraid that he might be wrong. Meanwhile, Goo Hae-ryung stares at a cross-shaped scar on her forearm.

She visits Mo-wha the next day and says she might have undergone variolation herself. Mo-wha is intrigued and asks when the procedure happened, and who Goo Hae-ryung’s parents are. Hae-ryung says that her father was only a merchant. Mo-wha officially introduces herself.

Crown Prince Jin is angry about the news that people are already hoarding in preparation for the pandemic. He is interrupted by snoring from Officer Seong who has fallen asleep while recording the meeting, much to the ire of the advisors. He later has to write a letter of apology to avoid further persecution.

Goo Hae-ryung visits the shack where the woman and her child have been hiding. She enters and realises that the child has passed away – she cries as she leaves the mourning mother.

Riddled with guilt, Goo Hae-ryung is comforted by Mo-wha. She gives Hae-ryung a book about a variolation method using Cowpox lesions rather than smallpox, which Hae-ryung later gives to the prince, imploring him to reconsider. Initially resistant, he eventually reads the research, which was written by a physician called Yeongan, who was unsuccessful in convincing civilians about the Western-taught variolation procedure.

Queen Dowager meets Crown Prince Jin. The two are worried about Prince Dowon. He promises to send orders for him to return as soon as possible.

Prince Dowon considers the procedure as he observes a pair of sick cows. He asks for Mo-wha, who swears on her own life that variolation works – as she was a student of Yeongan who witnessed the effects herself on patients. To the shock of his entourage, he volunteers to be variolated first to pacify the people.

Officer Min Woo-won confronts Goo Hae-ryung about the prince’s sudden change of heart. She admits that she was involved, and he scolds her for doing so, saying that historians must not be so influential, else they write history rather than record it. She does not understand why she is limited to only listening rather than acting.

Under a watchful crowd, Prince Dowon apprehensively yet determinedly undergoes variolation. Shortly afterward, Mo-wha is surrounded by Min Ik-pyeong’s men. She defends herself and manages to flee with the help of masked horsemen. Heo Sam-bo is alarmed by her disappearance.

Prince Dowon is unconscious and feverish, and his quarters are cordoned off as Goo Hae-ryung looks on worriedly.

Song Sa-hui’s father, Minister of Personnel Song Jae-cheon, notices men clearing out his storage. He is told that donating the medicine had been his own orders, relayed to them by Song Sa-hui. He is summoned to the Crown Prince, who thanks him for his assistance with a gift of high quality silk. Outside, he is thanklessly irate that the silk does not match the value of his donated stock.

Crown Prince Jin reveals that he knew Song Jae-cheon had been hoarding but could not find evidence. However, Sa-hui had managed to save her father from punishment but also record his apparent good deeds as a historian. She bristles at the Prince’s accusations, angrily stating that she had not done it out of love for her father, but because she wanted to do something good.

Prince Dowon recovers from his fever and orders the variolation procedure to go ahead for the civilians. Although initially nervous, the people are convinced by his experience and take the risk.

Heo Sam-bo prepares dinner for the prince with boiled pork, a delicacy, which Dowon hurries to gift to Goo Hae-ryung. He is thrilled when Hae-ryung says she is glad that he is okay.

News of the prince’s variolation reaches the palace. The King angrily orders the variolation procedure be banned.

In the Pyongan province, Officer Min Woo-won and the prince struggle to be helpful to the villagers – unable to spoonfeed children properly, start fires, and carry firewood. Goo Hae-ryung shifts them from each task to another as they fail, although not for lack of effort. She and Heo Sam-bo remark that although they are smart noblemen, they are useless.

Later on, the four eat dinner together. They are touched by a gesture from a villager, whose child sends them *gaettok*, treats that have been cooked using the meagre barley ration donated to them. They appreciate the food, emotionally describing it as delicious.

The villagers are bow deeply to Prince Dowon before he leaves, and he is visibly moved by their thankfulness. Crown Prince Jin excitedly rushes out to meet Ye Rim as he arrives, but the younger prince instead meets the irritated King.

As he asks after the King’s wellbeing, Prince Dowon is swiftly slapped in front of the palace workers. He admits to disobeying the King’s order to stop variolation, because he knew variolation could help the people. Crown Prince Jin arrives and kneels beside his brother. He exclaims that the historians are watching, and Goo Hae-ryung and Officer Min take out their *sachaeks* in silent support. Only then does the King calm down. In the distance, the Queen Dowager looks on in sadness.

## Starring

### Main cast:

* Shin Se-kyung as Goo Hae-ryung
* Cha Eun-woo as Prince Dowon
* Park Ki-woong as Crown Prince Yi Jin
* Lee Ji-hoon as Min Woo-won
* Gong Jung-hwan as Goo Jae-gyeong
* Kim Min-sang as King Hamyeong Yi Tae
* Choi Deok-moon as Min Ik-pyeong

### Recurring:

* Kim Yeo-jin as Queen Dowager Yim
* Heo Jeong-do as Officer Yang Si-haeng
* Kang Hoon as Officer Hyeon Kyeong-mook
* Nam Tae-woo as Officer Son Gil-seung
* Yoon Jung-sub as Officer Hwang Jang-goon
* Ji Gun-woo as Officer Seong Seo-kwon
* Oh Hee-joon as Officer Ahn Hong-ik
* Lee Jung-ha as Officer Kim Chi-gook
* Park Ji-hyun as Apprentice Song Sa-hee
* Lee Ye-rim as Apprentice Oh Eun-im
* Jang Yoo-bin as Apprentica Heo Ah-ran
* Jeon Ik-ryung as Mo-hwa
* Sung Ji-ru as Heo Sam-bo
* Yang Jo-a as Seol-geum
* Lee Kwan-hoon as Gak-soi
* Ryoo Tae-ho as Song Jae-cheon
* Kim Yong-woon as Gwi Jae