Jewel in the Palace: Episode 6 and 7 Commentry
Episode six is the first episode to present the cast at an older age. From Chang-Yee and Yeun-Seng being scolded at the beginning to Keum-Young and Young-ro. I’m going to miss the younger cast, and I’ll have to learn how to distinguish between the girls all over again. Yeun-Seng strongly stands out, which makes her easy to spot in a crowd, but the others will be difficult for me.
Even though they could be rivals for the position of Highest Kitchen Lady, Jang-Geum and Keum-Young have grown to be close friends. Keum-Young credits Jang-Geum for the charcoal idea, and waits for her until Lady Choi can wait no longer. This is the friendship Janggeum tried repeatedly to achieve in Janggeum’s Dream, and continued to fail at due to Geum-yeong’s arrogance and stubbornness.
Looking at Lady Choi, when she scolded Keum-Young at Pan-Sul’s house, she told Keum-Young that she should have alerted herself, Lady Han, or Lady Jung about it. There is no sense of “alert me and only me” that Lady Choi’s animated self gives off.
It’s been some time, but Jang-Geum has learned a lot, and is growing into the prophecy that would take the lives of her parents. She has saved someone who, if I’m correct, is one mighty warrior of a scholar. Jang-Geum dropping an item near him looks to relate with Janggeum losing a ring in Janggeum’s Dream. (By the way, what ever happened to the other man in that scene? He must have woken up, seen Jang-Geum tending to his wounded opponent, then simply left.)
This episode didn’t catch my interest as much as the prior episodes had. Until now, things started out epic, then put a focus on Jang-Geum’s difficulties to get into the palace and show her ability. Saving a warrior is nice and all, but the episode didn’t catch my attention so much.
Episode seven is an huge improvement. Jang-Geum finds herself in a position to bring hope to the hopeless, another way of saving lives. Who can’t enjoy watching as the manager of the herb group turns in the criminal only to find there’s a conspiracy to keep Jang-Geum’s herb from being grow, resulting in his risking his own job and well being to spread the information as wide and quickly as possible? It also doesn’t hurt that Yeun-seng’s note-taking reminds me of the same from episode four of Janggeum’s Dream.
I’m sure things will flow smoothly throughout the rest of the series, with some ups and some downs, but I don’t expect to write commentary on each episode. With such long episodes, it’s hard to remember enough details to write about anything (although that in itself might be a good reason to write, to help remember), and it’s hard enough trying to keep track of all the known characters and the new characters introduced in episode seven (although that in itself might be another a good reason to write, to get used to names).
