Scarlet Heart Ryeo Episode 2 & 3 Recap – Deadly Palace

Scarlet Heart Ryeo Episode 2 & 3 Recap

Scarlet Heart: Ryeo continues to raise the emotional stakes with two intensely packed episodes! Tension between the royal family grows. 4^th Prince makes a desperate attempt to stay in the palace while Hae-Soo’s romantic life grows ever more complicated.

RELATED | Scarlet Heart Ryeo Episode 1 Recap – 7 Princes and Romance

A Cold-Hearted Family

The story continues with 4^th Prince saving Hae-Soo from falling off a cliff – and then promptly tosses her onto the ground once she’s safe. She’s irritated at his behavior until she learns he’s the violent 4^th Prince. She’s not the only one who wants to avoid him. 4^th Prince tries to visit his mother, Queen Yoo, only to see her already visiting with his two brothers. He realizes he’s still totally unwanted. Ouch.

Behind The Mask

Hae-Soo secretly returns to the royal baths hoping to find a clue to how she time traveled. She happens to see 4^th Prince without his mask. He hides his face and threatens her to erase her memories of it.

That evening, the royal sons participate in a ritual sword-mask dance. As predicted by the Crown Prince, assassins interrupt the sacred show. They injure 4^th Prince, who secretly wore the Crown Prince’s mask to protect him. Despite his near-death experience, Daddy King shows no concern over 4^th Prince’s injury. 4^th Prince, hurting emotionally and physically, runs off to capture the escaping assassins himself. He manages to find one in the forest.

Unfortunately for Hae-Soo, she wanders into the forest and is captured by the assassin. 4^th Prince doesn’t care about the hostage situation and goads him to kill her. Luckily, 8^th Prince intervenes and kills the assassin. 4^th Prince isn’t too happy about that since he promised the Crown Prince to find the real culprit in exchange to stay in the palace. Of course, Hae-Soo isn’t too happy with 4^th Prince either.

Wolf-Dog Changes His Fate

Eventually, 4^th Prince pieces everything together and realizes the assassination plot was instigated by his mother and brother, 3^rd Prince. Meanwhile, Hae-Soo’s romantic life gets more complicated with little 10^th Prince falling for her after she beat him up for spying on a maidservant. Ha! But Hae-Soo has only eyes for 8^th Prince, which is kind of a problem with his wife being her cousin.

After hearing that the Crown Prince discovered the assassins’ whereabouts, 4^th Prince promptly slays all the assassins and burns the place down. In the middle of the night, he shows up at his mother’s bedside, dripping blood and grinning.

Thoughts and Feels:

Oh my word, he’s doing this all for Evil Mama Yoo! 4^th Prince might be a pretty darn evil prince but honestly, he’s ruling this show (and my heart, lol). His dual personalities are fascinating – the raging, brutal Wolf-Dog, and the broken, vulnerable Puppy-Dog. I mean seriously he only wants some love from his family! Fifteen years of being a hostage and he still wants his mother/father to show just a tiny bit of affection. One of my favorite moments with him was when he was smiling and laughing over his younger brothers playful fighting – you could literally see the longing in his eyes to be close to his brothers. Ahhh, stop ripping out my heart Lee Joon-Ki!

I’m seriously on the edge of my seat wondering what Mama Yoo’s response will be. It’s obvious that she tossed aside 4^th Prince. But her goal is to have one of her sons sit on the throne. 3^rd Prince is obviously her first choice, but 4^th Prince’s brutal act to destroy any connection between her and the assassination plot might open her eyes to see that he has the potential to be the heir she wants.

I absolutely loved the masked ritual dance – this show is full of so much epic pageantry. The choreography and music built an intense backdrop to an assassination attempt. Though I’m not a fan of the pop ballad songs during the romantic scenes, I love the instrumental soundtrack for this show. That song during the last scene of episode 3 was devastatingly gorgeous.

Hae-Soo continues to be precious and awesome. I love how she tries to fit into the restricted Goryeo world but can’t help herself from doing totally unorthodox things: like beating up Baby 10^th Prince for not apologizing to the maidservant (that headbutt she gave him, lol!) or cussing at 4^th Prince. She’s torn between returning to her own world and trying to make this new one her own. Obviously, there’s going to be some conflict eventually with her falling for her cousin’s husband. The past can be so complicated.

Scarlet Heart Ryeo is available to watch on Dramafever! New episodes are available on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Photos: Dramafever and SBS

Let me know your thoughts and feelings on Scarlet Heart Ryeo! What do you think about this new K-Drama?

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