Recap "Moonshine" Ep 5-6

Ro-seo, Young, and Sang-mok are still dangling over the edge of the cliff when we return to our story this week, and — unsurprisingly — Ro-seo loses her grip on Sang-mok, who falls to his death. No… wait… scratch that. Somehow Sang-mok lives?

Like our characters, I’m completely baffled as to how he survived the fall and managed to walk away. Admittedly, he looked like a straight-up zombie, and when I saw the way his head was lolling about, I legitimately thought this drama was going to go all Kingdom on us. Considering how many turns this story has taken so far, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they added zombies.

Ro-seo blames their current predicament on Young, calling him out on being obsessed with her. She acts like this upsets her, but we know she’s secretly into it. Young is also in denial about his affection for her, and tries to cover up his concern by claiming it was in his own personal and professional interests to follow her and make sure she didn’t get into trouble. Their mutual denial is amusing, but things are even more entertaining when Pyo and Ae-jin become more entangled with our lead couple.

Jo-moon whispers in the right ears, and now Ae-jin is engaged to Young. She isn’t completely disinterested because Young has an attractive face, but it’s a face she recognizes. She’s aware Young is connected to Ro-seo, and — modern woman that I am — I appreciate her gutsy confrontation with him. She may claim that she only wants a pretty face to look at for the rest of her life, but her actions indicate she also wants someone who makes her his priority.

When Pyo hears of the engagement, he rushes off to see Ro-seo, presumably to swoop in and steal her heart while she’s feeling low, but is he actually romantically interested in her? There’s no denying that Pyo is fond of Ro-seo; he downright glows when she calls him her friend.

But… Pyo’s also petty enough to exploit Young’s crush as a means of payback. He’s not happy to have Young as his teacher, and he’s also frustrated that the unskilled Young managed to outwit him in a physical duel — not once, but twice! Maybe he is developing romantic feelings for Ro-seo, but at the moment his pettiness is definitely shining brighter.

Meanwhile, Ro-seo digs a deeper hole for herself. After finding out Sang-mok is still alive, she decides it’s in her — and Young’s — best interests if her creditor is dead.  Sang-mok knows too much, and dead men tell no tales. Luckily for Sang-mok, his fall off the cliff gave him amnesia,  which makes Ro-seo hesitant to kill him.

Young and Pyo realize what Ro-seo is about to do, and put aside their pissing contest long enough to hatch a rescue plan.  Before they locate her, Woon-shim catches Ro-seo mid-murder attempt and offers to cut a deal. Woon-shim will dissolve her debt if she agrees to supply the alcohol for Woon-shim’s future tavern. Ro-seo ain’t no fool, so she accepts. After all, the King isn’t getting any younger, and prohibition is bound to die with him when the Crown Prince ascends the throne. Assuming Pyo ascends the throne, that is.

All signs point to the queen being pregnant with a boy, which pleases the members of the royal court. Up until this week, I found it odd that Jo-moon and his allies were so against Pyo, especially when the King’s biggest concern for his heir is that Pyo will be easily controlled by the court officials. Wouldn’t they want someone easily manipulated on the throne? Turns out, their issue with Pyo is the fact that his mother and uncle, Shi-heum, used to be servants. Their status was elevated when Shi-heum betrayed his master and made a deal with Jo-moon.

The inequality of the classes is a recurring theme and point of conflict for our characters. Chun-geum thinks she’s too good for Choon-gae and aspires to be a concubine for a noble family, and before Ro-seo softened Young’s beliefs, he did not see women and servants as his equal. He’s shown some growth and was downright embarrassed by the way his father treated Ro-seo, but in the end, he still agreed to the marriage with Ae-jin and moved into his future father-in-law’s house.

His midnight trip to Ro-seo’s house to apologize for his abrupt departure is poorly timed. Just when you think Ro-seo has escaped the worst of her troubles, another trigger-happy bootlegger arrives in town, and DAE-MO (Jung Young-joo) incorrectly assumes that Ro-seo had something to do with her son’s disappearance. While Dae-mo points a gun at her, Ro-seo says some harsh words she doesn’t mean in order to get Young to leave, and our almost-couple parts ways thinking their friendship has come to an end.

Ro-seo accompanies Dae-mo to Gwangju, where they agree to join hands, but their business dealings are cut short when Merchant Shim arrives to eliminate his competition. Young also happens to be in Gwangju, and the sound of gunshots directs him to where Merchant Shim and Dae-mo are duking it out.

It’s not really much of a fight, and Merchant Shim proves that — in this time period, at least — it’s actually better to bring a knife to a gunfight, and quickly subdues Dae-mo. Next up is Young, but in this modified game of rock-paper-scissors, sword also beats arrow (but only because Young is so righteous that he refuses to actually harm Merchant Shim).

During their scuffle, Young recognizes the scar on Merchant Shim’s forearm and has another flashback to the night that’s been giving him PTSD. Ro-seo saves Young from Merchant Shim with a well-fired gunshot, and even though her face was covered, Young recognizes her. When he returns to Hanyang, he immediately visits her house to confirm his suspicions, but she’s not alone. Pyo is there, and Young stares in shock as his crush plays house with his nemesis.