Recap Korean Drama "The Forbidden Marriage" Episode 6

Episode 6 of The Forbidden Marriage has So-rang stopping the King from drowning in the lake as he tries to follow the Crown Princess. She tells him that the apparition is not his wife and they have proof. She brings in the royal seamstress who claims that the royal wedding gown that Lord Ahn has is not genuine. 

So-rang tries to uncover the mystery and asks Shin-won to go into the lake and when he doesn’t agree she scares him and he falls into the water. He begrudgingly goes underwater and sees a gold mirror. They realise that the apparition is a reflection of a woman pretending to be the Crown Princess. The royal staff decide to hunt for her and when So-rang also volunteers, Shin-won stops her as he remembers Gwaeng Yi’s warning of another attack.

A court lady informs the Grand Queen Mother of the apparition and that they are searching all the ladies in the palace to find the culprit. However, this information is told in front of Lady Seo who suggests that if a queen is crowned there will be no more dangers. While leaving, she tells Military Minister Cho of the royal staff’s plan who decides to sabotage it.

Court Lady Won and Eunuch Se-jang gather all the women to investigate but Captain Kim of the Royal Guards steps in and takes over, claiming that they will look for the palace lady with a mysterious identity.

Chun-seok runs and tells Shin-won about the investigation and that the Captain needs him. After he leaves, the royal guards arrest So-rang. Shin-won, Se-jang and Won try to release her but the Captain ends up revealing that her real name is not So-rang. He also threatens Se-jang and Won and takes them in for interrogation.

Shin-won asks for So-rang’s real name and promises to help her. At that time, a ceremony of war takes place. So-rang wonders if the apparition is someone from the troops and asks him if they can check their identification tags. He declines as they are under Minister Cho who would never agree. But Shin-won decides to ask the King to help.

At the ceremony, Minister Cho tries to stop the King from praising each soldier personally but he goes anyway. He sees a soldier with thin and womanly hands and when he lifts the helmet, he sees a woman who looks exactly like the Crown Princess. The King doesn’t show his surprise and questions the woman. Minister Cho offers to interrogate her but the King hands her to Shin-won’s guards. At that moment, Chun-seok runs and tells them that So-rang is missing.

So-rang is tortured in a hidden basement with the Captain asking her who helped her. The King appears right then and claims he brought her in. He goes as far as to cover her with his royal robes. He doesn’t care that her real name is not So-rang and punishes Captain Kim as if he hurt the King. So-rang faints in the King’s arms and Shin-won can’t help but look sad.

Back at her quarters, the King apologizes for bringing So-rang pain. He decides to forget the Crown Princess and never summon her again. So-rang claims that since her work is done she should leave. The King asks her to stay by his side as So-rang and when she tries to apologize, he hugs her and thanks her for staying alive.

At that time, the royal staff burst in with the news that the woman who looked like the Crown Princess is dead and hanging from a ceiling just like the killer’s previous victims. Minister Sul-rok wonders if it is a warning to So-rang. So-rang tries to go to the King and Shin-won stops her and thanks her for being alive. She is curious why everyone is thanking her for staying alive and Shin-won finally tells her that seven women have died in the same way in the past for being close to the King.

Shin-won asks her to leave the palace but she reminds him of the assassins. He promises to leave with her and protect her. She rejects his offer and tearfully tells him that she needs to be with the King. She goes to the King who asks her to stay with him and she agrees. When she leaves in the morning, she is guilt-stricken to see Shin-won waiting for her all night. When she tells him that they need to take care of the King, he declares that he wants to take care of her instead.

At the prison, Minister Cho has Captain Kim killed by the queen-killer who plants the same knife that was used to attack Shin-won and So-rang. 

Shin-won and the King are busy trying to find the queen-killer. Shin-won finds the knife on Captain Kim and confronts Minister Cho about his death and the Crown Princess’ doppelganger. The King enters and Cho mocks him for being affected by the deaths of commoners. Shin-won finds out that the doppelganger was the gisaeng (escort) Cha-nyeon who was kidnapped 15 days ago and investigates her origins.

His guards find a stone at a storage place and the real royal wedding gown. The bead happens to be from an earring that Lady Seo found and gave to Cha-nyeon hinting that she was in on the doppelganger plan. Turns out she was also the one who stole the wedding gown and dressed up Cha-nyeon to look like the late Crown Princess.

Lady Seo is angry that Cho killed Cha-nyeon instead of So-rang. He tells her to go all out if she wants to make sure So-rang doesn’t replace Hyun-hee as the queen. At Aedaldang, Hae-young brings the news that more young women are getting kidnapped. Gwaeng Yi tells them to stop gossiping and go home and Painter Jeong accompanies Hae-yeong from afar who is amused. At that moment, two men come and kidnap her while Jeong runs after her.

He meets Shin-won and So-rang and the two men chase her while they tell So-rang to stay back. At that moment, the same men kidnap So-rang. While Shin-won fights them, Se-jang informs the King that So-rang is kidnapped. Shin-won and Jeong are outnumbered but at that moment the King comes to their rescue. They get a tip that So-rang is taken to Gwanaksan and they go after her together.

The Episode Review

Episode 6 of The Forbidden Marriage quickly establishes that this is not a supernatural K-drama but of apt men using trickery to lay traps. While of course, it seems too much of a coincidence that there would be another woman who looks exactly like the Crown Princess it is still a better choice than taking the supernatural route of using ghosts and actual possessions as it would take away from the initial comic premise from So-rang’s scam since she did it all based on the fact that ghosts aren’t real.

There isn’t much comedy, a mistake they rectified from episode 1 as episode 6 focuses on furthering the plot. While it casts a heavy atmosphere, it also shows the seriousness of Minister Cho’s treacherous plans which were shrugged aside in favour of funny instances until this episode. It also shows us an alternative that if The Forbidden Marriage had been a straightforward melodrama, it would have worked equally well all thanks to its strong story.