5 Times In Episodes 3-4 Of “Knight Flower” When Lee Jong Won Gets A Hint On Honey Lee’s Identity

“Knight Flower” just keeps getting better and better. The shorter episode count allows things to zip forward in a fun but rational progression. Jo Yeo Hwa (Honey Lee) and Park Soo Ho (Lee Jong Won) have met twice now, with both equally irritated and flustered by the other. But while he’s trying to figure her out, she’s equally eager to avoid him. Things come to a head when they find themselves constantly running into each other in and out of disguise. But will that be enough for Soo Ho to put the clues together?

Here are five times from episodes 3 and 4 when Park Soo Ho gets a hint of Jo Yeo Hwa’s identity.

Warning: spoilers for episodes 3-4 below.

1. When he “rescues” her

Yeo Hwa’s journey to the temple is cut short by a group of poor folk who are trying to steal the sacks of rice she’s bringing with her. Yeo Hwa’s happy to share it with them, but things get messy when Soo Ho and his brother, the Royal Secretary Park Yoon Hak (Lee Ki Woo), run into them on the same path and assume that the beggars are holding them prisoner. Yeo Hwa distracts Soo Ho (who would have fully broken the men’s bones if she hadn’t), and he “rescues” her, allowing the men enough time to flee. But like Yeo Hwa, Soo Ho doesn’t seem to have had much physical contact with the opposite sex because he drops her immediately. And perhaps it’s for the better. Because Soo Ho’s no fool.

He replays their interaction as he leaves and notes that rather than being in danger from the beggars, Yeo Hwa seemed to know exactly what she was doing. Yoon Hak’s too busy making heart eyes at Yeo Hwa’s brilliant, talented maid Yeon Sun (Park Se Hyun), so he’s of no help in the analysis quarter. Soo Ho doesn’t know why the Yeo Hwa he’s met doesn’t align with the tales of the virtuous daughter-in-law of the Seok family that he’s heard from Yoon Hak and everyone else, but he has bigger fish to fry and a thief he doesn’t want to catch.

2. When she returns the tiger painting

Yeo Hwa returns home to the message Soo Ho left at the Myungdo Inn, warning her that he has to hunt her down and not to appear before him again. He tells her to return the painting as soon as possible, and Yeo Hwa irritably stalks down to the Minister of Finance’s residence in disguise, meaning to slip in, drop it off, and slip out. Only, Soo Ho’s waiting for her there.

They engage in a fine display of swordsmanship, with Soo Ho both impressed and wondering why she showed up to return it. The fight reaches a rapid end when Yeo Hwa accidentally slices the tie off his shirt and is blinded by abs. He tries to cover himself, and she takes that opportunity to flee, leaving Soo Ho with only nightmares where the strange widow of the Seok family merges with the mysterious woman who steals paintings and saves children.

3. When she saves the old woman

Soo Ho really doesn’t want Yeo Hwa to be captured so he pretends to have lost the thief when he had ample chance to chase after her. He’s assigned to watch over another gathering of noble women, headed by the Minister of Finance’s lovely wife, who are planning to give alms to the poor. Yeo Hwa is forced to attend and bears with her mother-in-law using her as a tool of social ascent, with the conversation getting uglier and uglier. In a competition on who has the better daughter-in-law, the Minister of Personnel’s wife argues that the most virtuous things a widow can do is end her life and join her husband, sending a pointed look at her daughter-in-law’s direction. It’s such an ugly conversation, but Soo Ho seems to see a quiet strength in Yeo Hwa. There’s something he recognizes about her, but he doesn’t know why.

Yeo Hwa is further disheartened during the almsgiving to the poor, where she can only ladle a measly spoonful of porridge in their bowls and give them a handful of rice. She hates seeing them suffer. When an old woman begging the guards to find her lost granddaughter is shoved away without food, Yeo Hwa seeks her out only to see that someone’s messed with her ramshackle house and that it’s about to collapse. Without thinking, she runs in to shield the woman. And without thinking, Soo Ho runs in to shield her, taking the brunt of the injury. Yeo Hwa stares at him with her face partially covered, and something clicks in Soo Ho’s head. He limps away while Yeo Hwa’s mother-in-law tries to give her hell, only to shut up when the Minister of Finance’s wife praises her courage.

4. When she returns with rice and rescues the girl

That night, Yeo Hwa can’t stop thinking about all the poor on the edge of town and goes there in disguise with a bag of rice that she happily gives away. But trouble’s waiting for her there. First off, Soo Ho’s already there, trying to rebuild the old woman’s house despite his wounded shoulder because he’s a big softie. Second, Guild head Kang Pil Jik’s (Jo Jae Yoon’s) hired muscles are scouring the huts for a missing girl. It turns out that they’ve been kidnapping children from poor parts of town to traffic. The girl is the old woman’s missing granddaughter. Yeo Hwa immediately steps up to protect the girl, but the men just take the old woman hostage. So, Yeo Hwa offers herself as hostage. And that’s when an equally masked Soo Ho steps on the scene.

Yeo Hwa’s all “what the hell?” when he comes out of nowhere and says that he’ll be the hostage. They bicker back and forth on why the other is here and why they keep running into each other and insist that they’re not working together to Kang Pil Jik’s very confused men. But there’s a shared camaraderie between the two, and even while they argue, their focus is to protect the innocent around them, and that’s exactly what they do, sending the men running (while pretending to fight each other). Yeo Hwa makes a run for it too but Soo Ho catches up with her and ditches his mask. It only takes him one look at her face to put it together with Yeo Hwa’s half-covered face. And he smiles and lets her go.

Soo Ho knows her identity!

5. The way she reacts to any physical contact

Everything Yeo Hwa knows about fighting could fill several books, but her knowledge of romance and men could sit on the head of a pin. She hasn’t been able to keep her head straight ever since she saw his abs, and every time he grips her wrist, she tries to run in the other direction. Soo Ho finds it fascinating though he isn’t thinking of romance at the moment. When he stops by the Myungdo Inn to repair the scrollhead of the painting Yeo Hwa stole (and broke in their fight), he almost grins to see her hiding. They fight over who should return the repaired painting once more and accidentally crack the painting some more, and flower petals suddenly come out of the hollow within. Soo Ho and Yeo Hwa have no idea why they’re there, but they absolutely have a moment watching them fall.

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There’s something hilarious about these two supposed archenemies sitting down and critiquing the other’s crime-stopping abilities. Yeo Hwa confides in him that Kang Pil Jik is trafficking children and suggests that they work together, but Soo Ho shoots that down immediately saying that it’s his job as a member of the capital guard. She’s just a figure in a mask, he says. Yeo Hwa’s hurt by it, even though part of her knows it’s true. But Soo Ho doesn’t fare well in his attempt to go by the book. He tries to bring Kang Pil Jik for questioning, enlisting even his boss in the process. But Pil Jik merely pulls on his connections and is released, leaving Soo Ho in his boss’s bad books, with no power, and with some powerful enemies. Yeo Hwa hears that he’s failed and sneaks in herself to rescue the children, but Soo Ho slips in right after her and asks why she isn’t leaving the job to him, and we’re left at that cliffhanger!

Soo Ho’s an interesting man in the sense that he’s very aware of the injustice around him and tries to correct it, but he’s so by-the-book that he ends up making enemies. He doesn’t play the game the way his brother or even the King does, and he has no idea that there’s a web of corruption in the city with Left State Minister Seok Ji Sang (Kim Sang Joong) at its very heart. Soo Ho’s only weakness seems to be Yeo Hwa, whose identity he’s protecting with everything in him both in and out of disguise. When it comes to her, he’s the worst cop in the city. Just never seems to see her. It’s adorable.

I can’t wait for them to fall hard, especially because Yeo Hwa’s amazing. The more we see of how widowed women and women in general were treated during the Joseon period, the worse it gets. These women depend on men for validation, finances, and security, so they cut each other down whenever they can in a game of “virtue,” trying to be perfect for men who’ve never followed even a single rule. It’s heartbreaking because life is a prison to them and has turned women like Yeo Hwa’s mother-in-law into rigid, poisonous creatures of habit. The fact that Yeo Hwa continues to maintain her compassion for others in the midst of it all is a testament to her spirit. With the characters all in play and Yeo Hwa blissfully unaware that Soo Ho knows her secret, next week promises to be quite the ride. Will things get romantic? Friday will tell!

Also the secondary couple here is the cutest. That height difference! Lee Ki Woo’s smile!

 

 

cr: Soompi