Digging For Water
Episode 5 of River Where The Moon Rises begins with Go Gun showing the King the necklace given to Pyong Gang. He tells her that the princess is definitely still alive and promises that the most important thing right now is bringing her back alive. He promises to find a way to do this but needs the King to trust him. Outside the palace, Go Gun speaks to the Head Eunuch and implores him not to say anything about his whereabouts. News of the Princess soon spreads to Go Won-Pyo though, who decides to use the King’s fear against him. Go Gun eventually shows up though and tells his Father to leave these palace affairs to him. In fact, this brings him straight to Hae Mo-Yong where he calls her out for selling illegal herbs. To show he’s being serious, he burns everything in sight. Mo-Yong doesn’t seem phased though and instead, invites Go Gun inside to talk. Go Gun grabs her wrist as she talks about the herbs, convinced that she’s smuggling in drugs to the palace. What Go Gun really needs though is someone who can help concoct a lie. Speaking of which, he heads out with Mo-Yong who wheels up a cart with a dead body in. This is a decoy of course, but Go Gun plays up the lie and tells them all that this is definitely Pyong Gang. In fact, they even have Lady Gong Son double check this as well. Only, she defies Go Gun and tells Go Won-Pyo that this isn’t her. Uh oh! Won-Pyo scoffs at this revelation, telling his son that he needs to learn to keep his nose out of things to prevent any upcoming bloodshed. Go Gun however, heads to Mo-Yong and admits that he’s struggling to trust her. Mo-Yong is trying to play a very dangerous game, doing her best to stay on the good side of every tribe. Meanwhile, Pyong Gang continues to adopt her disguise, picking herbs and vegetables, while Dal mopes about at Lady Sa’s place. On his way back, he ignores Pyong Gang and begins hacking the ground with his hoe. Pyong Gang follows though and tells him she should be the one punished, not him. She rejects the palace, telling him she doesn’t want to go back and wants to live a good life in Ghost Valley. Dal has no feelings either way but it seems like the villagers have accepted her, so for now he’s okay with it. At the Smith, he finds all of Pyong Gang’s weapons. Apparently she dropped these off to be smelted. In the morning, Dal heads off at dawn to start digging again. Pyong Gang shows up first though and asks him to leave the well to him. She even offers him some food from Lady Sa’s. He simply swats it away though and tells her about the past. Specifically, how his tribe were killed and he’s not in a particularly forgiving mood. Pyong Gang tries to explain that she had noting to do with this as she was still very young, eventually walking away after handing over the wooden statue. Deliberating on her words, Dal eventually rushes after Pyong Gang and tells her not to leave. He wants her to stay as Ga Jin and tells her she has nothing to apologize for as it wasn’t her fault. Back at the village, Pyong Gang and Dal set out to make more room at home, flirting and having fun together. They continue to spend time doing village affairs, collecting vegetables and with Pyong Gang helping Lady Sa with water. He eventually brings them both to the hole out by the cliff edge as they continue to dig down and find water. Elsewhere, Cheonjubang rally together and decide to finish the job the princess tried and failed to accomplish. The Chief tasks Tara Jin and Tara San to fulfil this mission. Before they go, they speak to Yeom Deuk and tell him about Ghost Valley. Unfortunately, Tae-Mo happens to be listening from the doorway. That evening, Go Gun begins practicing his sword skills but Won-Pyo shows and tells Go-Gun that he is to resign from his position in the morning. Only, while looking out his window he notices the two assassins sneaking into the palace. They’re fought off though, as the Chief arrives at Ghost Valley, asking Pyong Gang if she managed to find water.
The Episode Review
This episode essentially splits our drama in half, with the village affairs and what’s going on with Go Gun and his Father contrasting against the lackadaisical plot of Dal and Pyong Gang doing village chores and growing closer together. With Dal now forgiving the princess and the two getting along a lot better, the Chief arriving could just be the spark needed to pick up the pace. After such a frenetic energy gripping the first couple of episodes, it’s a bit of a shame that the show has grinded to a halt in the way that it has. While it’s not boring per-se, there just isn’t a lot going on in these episodes. Given this is a 20 episode series, we’ve got a lot more content to get through but it remains to be seen if this can keep audiences invested for the long haul. I just hope there’s some more content to talk about next time because there really isn’t a whole lot going on in this one!
