Welcome to the Open Thread, everyone!

This is the last one! 🥲

Which means, no more spoiler restrictions, finally! 😁

Without further ado, here are my reactions to this set of episodes. Have fun in the comments! ❤️

My thoughts

Episode 9

I really liked this penultimate episode, you guys.

I found it engaging and immersive, both on the emotional front, and on the macro, pulling-all-the-narrative-threads-together sort of front.

In that sense, it feels like Show is very balanced, at least at the moment.

On the emotional front, I love the built-in angst of Uk and Bu Yeon choosing to pretend, with that whole, “I know that you know that I know – but let’s pretend that I don’t know that you know that I know,” and every other available permutation of these words.

Show’s done a very solid job (at least for me), of building the emotional connection between Uk and Bu Yeon, this season, and I feel invested in what happens to their relationship.

And, Show’s done a good job of creating a situation where Uk’s technically obligated to kill Bu Yeon, once he becomes aware that she is a soul-shifter. AND, there’s also the thing, where Bu Yeon’s soul is supposed to leave her host body.

I want these two to have a happy ending, but can’t figure out how Show will give it to them (and us!), and right now, that’s a pretty good place to be, coz that’s definitely some important dramatic and emotional tension, right there. 😅

And, I still kinda swoon at the, “Only I am allowed to come this close.” 🫠

On another note, I am extremely tickled by the scenes of Uk and the Crown Prince, this episode.

Before watching this episode, someone shared an article on Patreon, where Lee Jae Wook talked about how his scenes with Shin Seung Ho had been heavily ad-libbed, with most of the ad-libs coming from Shin Seung Ho.

And now, watching their scenes together, which they have a lot of, this episode, I find myself supremely tickled by the idea that Shin Seung Ho’s just coming up with these lines, on the fly. 😁

My favorite Uk-Crown Prince moments this episode, are when Uk pats Crown Prince on the shoulder, to console him over the loss of his turtle, and also, when Crown Prince offers to analyze Uk’s situation with Bu Yeon, and Uk actually reluctantly opens up.

Also, this: “Despite owning an ice stone and reaching Hwansu, you have failed to win your wife’s heart. That power of yours is useless.”

Crown Prince’s furrowed brow, combined with his gossipy ahjumma sort of expression, just makes it really funny to me. 😁

This reluctant bromantic connection is absolutely becoming a highlight of my watch, and now I’m sad that I only have one more episode of this show to enjoy this.

In terms of our main narrative, I have to admit, I was really pleased to have Crown Prince confirm that he’s not actually in cahoots with Jin Mu, and is just playing along with Jin Mu, in order to learn his secrets and take him and his secret organization down.

YESS. My gut had insisted that Crown Prince wasn’t a bad dude, but the satisfaction of having it confirmed was still very excellent. 😁

I also really like the scene where Naksu / Bu Yeon talks with the Crown Prince, and they indirectly settle the grudge and angst between them.

I like how their conversation is gentle, and full of poignance, wistfulness and compassion. It feels right to me, that Naksu tells Crown Prince to be in pain, but only for a season, after which she’d like him to forget.

It just feels.. right, to me.

Also, I’m glad that Yul learns about the bell potion, and that Naksu / Mu Deok had been given the potion, thus explaining how and why she’d gone berserk the way she’d had, at the end of Season 1.

This feels like an important thread, because without it, Yul would continue to think of Naksu as a violent murderer, and that just doesn’t sit right, since she’d been under the influence of Jin Mu’s bell potion.

Show introduces an intriguing idea, this episode, that the soul that Madam Jin believes to be her daughter Bu Yeon, could actually be Jin Seol Ran herself, since Jin Seol Ran has also been blind from birth.

Intriguing.

Again, it’s that thing where a new piece of information fits so well into Show’s story world, that it just feels like another hidden door has been revealed, in this house with many rooms.

I’m not sure what to make of this, but I’m pretty certain that this will come into play, in the way Show wraps things up for the finale.

ALSO, while it would have been poetic justice for Jin Mu to waste away after having the energy sucked out of him by that ice stone, it makes more story sense, for him to find a new body in Yoon Oh, and come back stronger than ever, for a final showdown.

As we close out this episode, I’m on tenterhooks over Uk’s and Bu Yeon’s future together, even as they share those beautifully tender moments together.

I can’t help swooning though, even as I bite my nails over their future. 🫠🫠🫣🫣🫠🫠😅

I’m not super hot on the reveal that the King is actually a Jin Mu supporter, along with the rest of the Unanimous Assembly, coz this, while technically possible, doesn’t feel very organic, given all that we’ve been shown.

But ok, I get that this is probably in service of our Final Showdown, so bring it on, and bring it home, Show!

Episode 10

Hm. I’m gonna hafta say that I somehow feel a touch underwhelmed by this finale, even though Show wraps up everything and gives us a happy ending.

Overall, I feel like Show’s like a gymnast who delivered a very solid routine in the midst of a competition, and then, in the final somersault, wobbled a bit, in sticking the landing.

I’m trying to figure out what it is that’s underwhelming me, and I’m thinking that it’s definitely got something to do with Show leaning into the Drama of the overarching story, and pulling out all the stops there.

The whole apocalypse type of scenario was very dramatic, and us almost losing Park Jin and Maidservant Kim had me in disbelief for a bit (though I was admittedly less sad about Madam Jin, oops 😅).

But through a good chunk of this finale, I found myself feeling emotionally disconnected, somewhat, with our characters.

The balance that I’d found to be “just so,” in our penultimate episode, felt a bit off to my eyes, this finale, and as a result, the watch experience felt rather uneven, for me.

I think one reason for that, is, we open and close the episode with our OTP, but for a good stretch in the middle, the OTP takes a backseat, while Show goes all near-apocalypse on us.

And while I understand that it’s important that Jin Mu gets eradicated (I must say, Do Sang Woo does a good job channeling Jin Mu, so much so that I could believe that it was Jo Jae Yun on the inside, working his face and voice), I still felt the absence of our OTP quite keenly.

I mean, don’t get me wrong; I liked the scenes of the OTP at the beginning of the episode.

The scenes of them just doing couple things, were sweet and dreamy, and the wedding was also quite lovely. And, I also liked that Master Lee talks about how their names mean “light” and “shadow,” coz, Ohhhh, finally the title of this season makes sense to me.

At the same time, it felt to me, like Show was being withholding, on the OTP front, after this point.

We only find out in flashback, about Naksu / Yeong’s final moments, before her dissipation, and I didn’t like that.

I’d have wanted to know, right when it happened, not after the fact, in flashback. It kinda feels like Show went and let it happen without me, in a weird way?

And, with Show emphasizing all the other dramatic face-offs in our story, it also felt like this important OTP moment (and really, the OTP is the heart of this season, for me), got relegated to the sidelines, which I didn’t prefer.

Show does give our OTP a happy ending, but I have to confess that I kind of had to remind myself about Master Lee’s theory about Jin Seol Ran’s soul inhabiting Bu Yeon’s body, in order for it to sit better.

Because, otherwise, it just felt rather strange and overly easy, to just have Original Bu Yeon back away and give her body to Naksu / Yeong, just like that.

This might have more to do with my being slow to embrace the theory that Show introduces, than Show not doing a good job providing an explanation for Bu Yeon giving her body to Naksu / Yeong.

After this point, though, I felt, AGAIN, that Show was being withholding, on the OTP front, because, time-skip later, we visit all our characters, at length, except for our OTP.

I know that Show’s saving them for last, but still, I couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that Show was withholding their happy ending from me, and therefore denying me the gratification that I wanted. 😅

Can you tell that I was somewhat disgruntled, by this point of my watch? 😅

All that said, though, I’m glad that everyone who means anything to us, is alive and doing well.

I’m especially glad that Show didn’t kill off Park Jin and Maidservant Kim, and we even get an indication that Maidservant Kim is likely to be pregnant, which is great, because I know she’d be an awesome mom.

I’m also somewhat tickled to see that our Crown Prince is now the King, and that, even as King, he’s still got that befuddled, slightly grumpy way of talking, which has really grown on me, by now.

While I would have liked to have seen our OTP living an idyllic sort of life, after all that they’ve been through, it is fittingly badass, that beyond the casual couple bickery, they work together and combine their powers, to hunt down all the escaped relics, in order to protect the world at large.

With great power comes great responsibility, after all. 😉

And I’m glad to know that underneath that great power, is a great love, which they have chosen to give each other.

Thanks for joining this group watch! ❤️