6 Unexpected Meetings In Episodes 7-8 Of “Knight Flower” Where The Conspiracy Tightens

It’s hard to believe we only have six episodes left of “Knight Flower.” The drama’s been speeding at such a fun pace that it feels like we’ve so much story to mine here. This week brings a new character, who’s also an old character, while the circle of conspirators who engineered the tragedy 15 years ago starts to break apart. Enemies recognize enemies, and friends start to group together, but the bad guys have their eyes peeled, and sooner or later Jo Yeo Hwa (Honey Lee) may make a mistake that costs her everything.

Warning: spoilers for episodes 7-8 below.

1. Soo Ho and Ji Sang

Park Soo Ho (Lee Jong Won) has been using every possible legal method to dig into Kang Pil Jik (Jo Jae Yoon). Unfortunately, the thing with legal methods is that they expose him to liability, and Kang Pil Jik has his eye on him as a result. The only reason Soo Ho isn’t dead in a ditch somewhere is because his brother is Royal Secretary Park Yoon Hak (Lee Ki Woo). But Soo Ho’s getting on Pil Jik’s nerves, so he reports it to Seok Ji Sang (Kim Sang Joong). Ji Sang’s already suspicious of Yoon Hak’s meetings with King Yi So (Heo Jung Do), though both are doing their best to play them off as innocent games of go. He also doesn’t like the timing of Soo Ho having been adopted into Yoon Hak’s family, right about the time the old King died. Taking a lesson from Sun Tzu, he resolves to know his enemy. And what better way to do that than by drinking?

Yeo Hwa is flabbergasted to see Soo Ho at her in-law’s home. After her revealing her face the previous night, Soo Ho proceeded to inform her that, while he can’t stop her from going around saving people, he needs her to let him know when so that he can accompany her. He plays this off as him trying to do the right thing so that she doesn’t get in trouble if she’s ever close to being found out (and there have been many close calls thus far where Soo Ho’s been useful!). But it’s pretty obvious that Soo Ho’s in pretty deep. Yeo Hwa is just as flustered when he shows up and tries to eavesdrop on the men drinking. Which is, of course, when Soo Ho finds her and looks just plain delighted when she trips and ends up in his arms.

These two are the cutest. 

2. Soo Ho and Yi So

Soo Ho makes it through the meeting with Ji Sang without arousing any suspicion and taking his brother’s warnings seriously (the relationship between these two adopted siblings is just plain wonderful). Soo Ho’s never looked into Ji Sang and doesn’t have him on his list of suspects at all because Yoon Hak’s been careful not to involve his brother in his silent battle with the most dangerous man in the country. But with Soo Ho in Ji Sang’s sights, Yoon Hak has no choice but to let his brother in on the fact that he’s been pursuing a 15-year investigation against the people who assassinated the king and Soo Ho’s family, the head of the king’s guard, Im Kang (Jo Seung Yeon).

Yoon Hak arranges a meeting between Yi So and Soo Ho and gives his brother the choice to join a battle that could ruin his life against a man who secretly rules Joseon after murdering Yi So’s father. Soo Ho immediately agrees. He has no memories of the night his family were murdered but needs to give them justice. And just like that, our circle of do-gooders gets bigger. Yi So tells Yoon Hak and Soo Ho that his father was poisoned to death the same way the Minister of Finance was. Soo Ho reveals that his prime suspect for that murder is Oh Nan Kyeong (Seo Yi Sook), the same woman who has subtly been exerting pressure on the Dowager Queen to allow her to stay in the city instead of leaving for her mandatory period of mourning. Given the similarity in methods and the fact that Nan Kyeong went in and out of the palace as she pleased, it stands to reason that she could have poisoned the king’s tea without being suspected. But there’s another who may be able to shed light on the matter: Yeo Hwa’s brother Cho Sung Hoo (Park Sung Woo), a member of the King’s Guard and the last person to meet with the king. Yoon Hak’s been secretly reaching out to Yeo Hwa in case she knows anything. And Soo Ho keeps digging into Nan Kyeong. But she’s already made her move. And Yeo Hwa is her target.

3. Nan Kyeong and Yeo Hwa

Yeo Hwa’s surprised to find a message hidden in a book for her, telling her that someone who has information on her brother will meet with her in five days. When Nan Kyeong invites Yeo Hwa over and starts asking her about her brother, Yeo Hwa assumes that she is that someone. In reality, Nan Kyeong’s here to sow discord. A lot of it. 15 years ago, she was instrumental to Ji Sang getting rid of the old king, but her reward for it was marriage to an abusive nutcase, the Minister of Finance. Ji Sang isn’t pleased that she got rid of her husband and is now trying to present herself as a virtuous widow, so he’s trying to enforce every Confucian ideal there is to get her sent out of the city to mourn for the rest of her life AKA out of sight, out of mind. And Nan Kyeong isn’t willing to go willingly.

In what will be devastating news for Ji Sang’s patient wife, Yoo Geum Ok (Kim Mi Kyung), Ji Sang and Nan Kyeong appear to have had a pretty long affair while they were busy killing the king. And Nan Kyeong has all the blackmail material she needs to sow discord in his household. She starts by sowing seeds in Yeo Hwa that her brother was no ordinary member of the King’s Guard. Yeo Hwa remembers that the last time she saw him was when he ran out in the middle of the night when it wasn’t his shift. Nan Kyeong’s theory that he was a member of the king’s inner circle makes sense. Nan Kyeong insinuates that Ji Sang knew and didn’t tell Yeo Hwa. An earnest Yeo Hwa asks Ji Sang if he’s heard nothing about her brother, and Ji Sang brushes her off. But later that night, he reminisces about the day he killed him and took the last thing the king gave (his seal) from Yeo Hwa’s brother’s body. Oh no.

4. Seok Jeong and Geum Ok

The mystery man we saw in last week’s preview has turned up in the city. Mixing English with Korean and selling a variety of goods, he’s an instant hit. But his return spells a lot of trouble because this is Seok Jong (Oh Eui Sik), Yeo Hwa’s supposedly dead husband. And it turns out that even he didn’t know that he was dead.

Seok Jeong is bewildered to find out that he’s not only buried but also married upon returning to the city. He keeps his identity a secret, but it’s clear that he loves his mother and wishes he could speak with her. Geum Ok catches sight of him at a market and races around, all propriety forgotten, thinking that he’s still alive. It turns out that Ji Sang has been lying to his wife for 15 years. Seok Jeong never died in a hunting accident. He wanted to marry an Englishwoman, and his father refused, so Seok Jeong left the family. Rather than be honest or even reveal why his son left, Ji Sang lied to his wife that he died. This is going to be so bad when she finds out.

Seok Jeong is taken with Yeo Hwa but runs into her a few times in other guises, such as when she’s with Soo Ho. It’s hilarious because part of him is so confused that his wife is this stunning, and the other half has seen her as Soo Ho’s supposed lover (which he keeps denying) and hasn’t recognized her.

5. Yeon Sun and Yoon Hak

The slow burn between these two is the most adorable thing. Yoon Hak clearly adores her, and while Yeon Sun (Park Se Hyun) clearly feels something, she also knows that she has more to lose. When Soo Ho’s fan is found in the family’s shrine by Geum Ok, Yeo Hwa nearly loses her head because Geum Ok assumes she’s been meeting a man in secret, until Yeon Sun makes up a story about it being Yoon Hak’s. Suspicious, Geum Ok drags Yeon Sun to Yoon Hak to confirm the story. He immediately does but stops when Geum Ok thanks him for rescuing a servant and tells him not to do so in the future because it could damage her reputation being that they are of different classes.

It’s like a slap in the face to both of them as they realize how huge the gap in their stations are, but Yoon Hak refuses to be deterred and says he’d do it again if he had to and that he basically never saw her as anything less than an equal. That shuts Geum Ok up, and Yeon Sun is absolutely in love.

6. Yeo Hwa and Yoon Hak

We come full circle at the end when Yoon Hak reaches out to Yeo Hwa to ask about her brother. He shows up and thinks that it’s Yeo Hwa speaking to him from behind a curtain, but she shows up behind him in disguise and puts a sword to his neck asking him for what he knows. Right then, Soo Ho materializes to defend his big brother and puts his sword to Yeo Hwa’s neck. They both freeze upon realizing that it’s each other. And Yoon Hak’s about to find out just who the vigilante on the streets and the woman whom his brother’s been obsessing over is!

This show is so much fun! There’s such a great balance of humor and action with the heavier beats on women’s lack of agency and the monsters it can create. Nan Kyeong could have been a very different person if she’d gotten the chance. But her mother’s affair doomed her to a lower social class and no opportunities. Her only way up in life was to use men, and that’s what she’s done because that’s what society taught her. She makes for a great foil to Jang So Woon (Yoon Sa Bong), who’s been doing a fantastic job as a thriving female entrepreneur here and as one of the best friends Yeo Hwa could ask for. While our circle of schemers on the side of good is about to get bigger, the baddies have never been more fractured. But we’ve four more episodes to see them attempt to throw roadblocks. Let’s see where next week takes us! Hopefully it’s more of this!

 

cr: Soompi